Illegal drugs may have hospital connection

General news

Hospitals are not supposed to be involved in the illegal drug business, but it appears they are at least indirectly.

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Five people have been arrested in drug raids in Chiang Rais Mae Sai district which netted 200,000 pills of methamphetamine and 6kg of crystal methamphetamine with a street price of 78 million baht in total. A key ingredient may have come from Thai hospitals.

King-oua Laohong

Hospital staff are suspected of supplying pseudoephedrine-based medicines to drug gangs in Myanmar and Laos.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office is probing the financial records of pharmacists and other hospital staff to find out whether they have been trafficking pseudoephedrine-based drugs from state and private hospitals.

The drugs are used as a precursor for producing methamphetamine and crystal methamphetamine.

Amlo chief Seehanat Prayoonrat said investigators are also probing the suspected drug rings which receive the drugs from Thailand.

Preliminary results show gangs are paying hospital staff to order the drugs, which are then diverted from hospital pharmacies and sent by mail to northern provinces.

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Illegal drugs may have hospital connection