Drugs are a major problem in this country. I shouldn't say "drugs" but rather "drug" because only one drug, meth, causes a ton of problems here. The people who use other drugs such as weed and even cocaine, don't really cause any problems for anyone. The first drug is so harmless that people just want to chill and laugh and the second one is so expensive here that almost nobody bothers with it. Meth or "YaBa" is a cheap and easily accessible drug that turns the users into crazed zombies so even though I am opposed to the global war on drugs, I am happy they are combating this particular drug.
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That's a stock image and has nothing to do with the story that I recently got my hands on but the real story takes place in Suphan Buri, which is a rather large province just to the northwest of Bangkok.
It has long been known or at least suspected that a great deal of the Yaba (meth) that is in Thailand is smuggled from Laos and Myanmar over the large northern border and it makes its way to Bangkok and other places accordingly. There are a lot of mules involved in this of course and since this is a rather corrupt country, the Army and the police themselves have been caught being involved in the very thing that they are meant to prevent.
I feel as though whenever a bust is made that it is purely ceremonial in nature and that they bust a certain amount of low to middle range dealers in order to keep up the impression that they are doing something about it. Well recently a really silly situation of dumb luck resulted in a rather strange encounter between criminal and a police officer that was hiding extremely well.
Two men parked their BMW on the side of the road that the police had been tipped off is a point of exchange on a highway. Once parked the two men got out of the vehicle and one of them walked over to the side of the road to relieve himself. He didn't realize what was going on at the time because I am guessing the police officer was very well camouflaged but one of the dealers started to wee right on the policeman that was hiding in the brush. I guess this was one of those very dedicated police officers because even though he was in the process of getting a golden shower, he didn't freak out and lose his hiding position. He did later reveal his position and arrest the two men who were quite surprised by his presence. The dealers didn't offer any resistance which is always something that kind of amazes me about Thailand. When criminals get busted, they mostly don't resist at all. Perhaps there is something in the unwritten law here that the criminals know that they are going to get off a lot easier if the police don't have to work very hard to catch them.
The vehicle was searched and no drugs were found but a handgun was along with ammunition. It is NOT illegal to own a firearm in Thailand and the article I read doesn't indicate whether or not the weapon was illegal. The drugs they were hoping for weren't there though so police were about to release the two when a package was found taped to the bottom of the car. It contained 1000 Yaba tablets so the cops had them dead to rights.
Now I have no idea how accurate police reporting to the media is, I would imagine not terribly accurate but according to reports the two immediately spilled the beans and later reports stated that the two of them actually told the officers where the drugs were hidden. If that is true I can only guess that criminals of this sort are let off pretty easy if they just work with the officers at the time. Very few drug dealing cases are actually followed up on so the cynic in me thinks that the police simply sell the drugs themselves, get a payout from our BMW sporting pee-friends here, and then everyone just goes on their way. I guess this is the futility of the war on drugs on display.
Personally, I have no idea what Yaba costs but I don't think 1000 tablets is really even a drop in the bucket. I have zero desire to find out what it costs because while i am usually down for adventure, doing meth is not one of the things I am willing to try.
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This is the only image of one of the people in the car and his street name is "Red Lips" or "PakDaeng" because he wears lipstick to cover the discoloration of his lips that is caused by smoking meth.
While this sort of bust likely happens many times a day in Thailand this one stood out because of the situation involving a policeman that even upon being accidentally peed on, he never revealed his position. Now that is dedication to your job!