Bangkok Post : Senior female cop on drug charge

Senior female cop on drug charge

A woman police lieutenant-colonel in Chiang Rai was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly supplying hge amounts of cold relief pills to a drug gang in Burma for use as a precursor substance to produce methamphetamine, police said.

Pol Lt Col Sirat Jaichum, aged 44, a senior officer with the Phaya Mengrai police station, was presented at a press conference attended by Phayao Governor Pongsak Wangsamer, Pol Maj Gen Jarin Insuwanno, the Phayao police chief, Wichai Chaimongkol, provincial legal execution chief and Pichet Danphikul, an officer with the Office of the Narcotics Control Board's Chiang Mai office who led the raid of the drug store.

She was arrested after police in neighbouring Chiang Mai province raided a pharmacy suspected of having sent her a large amount of cold relief pills, the press conference was told.

Pol Lt Col Sirat allegedly confessed to smuggling the precursor drug into Burma.

Chaichai Prichaphilak, 57, the pharmacy owner, was wanted by police for involvement with a gang supplying cold relief drugs that contained pseudoephedrine, a precursor for producing methamphetamine, to a drug manufacturer in Burma.

Mr Chaichai admitted that he had sent the pills to Pol Lt Col Sirat, using a delivery service offered by the intercity bus, according to police.

Police had also obtained a record of unusual money transfers between Mr Chaichai and Pol Lt Col Sirat.

He sent the drugs to Pol Lt Col Sirat in Phayao, her hometown. She then hired her relatives to remove the pills for their containers which were later thrown away.

On Aug 14, some villagers reported to Phayao police that they had discovered empty boxes for over 200,000 cold relief pills and again on Aug 30, similar boxes for about 170,000 such pills were found left in a canal.

Police began an investigation.

Pol Lt Col Sirat told police that she had delivered the pills to a woman identified only as Suk on the other side of the Thai-Burmese border in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district. She said she put the drugs in the back of her car and normally showed her police ID card to get through the border check without being searched, the press conference was told.