Thailand authorities made a startling discovery when they retrieved over 700 pounds of ketamine drugs inside the Transformers statues.
“Currently, we are facing a drug trafficking problem with transnational crime networks hidden in all regions, using Thailand as a base to smuggle drugs to third countries continuously through international shipments via air or sea,” Police Lt. Gen. Phanurat Lhakbun told reporters of the bust, which happened on April 25.
Australian authorities found around 220 pounds of methamphetamine that an unidentified woman tried to smuggle inside a food processing machine on March 12, and they kept an eye on her activities in the following weeks, Viral Press reported.
She allegedly tried to smuggle an even bigger batch of drugs inside the bases of lifesize statues of the Transformers characters Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Greenlight and others. The statues ostensibly were to go to a movie exhibition in Taiwan, Channel News Asia reported.
Police seized hundreds of pounds of ketamine hidden inside life-size Transformer robots in Thailand. (Viral Press)
The woman allegedly paid around $4,800 to the shipping company to help her transport the statues. Authorities said she had received instructions from another unidentified woman in Laos who would receive the drugs. The narcotics board claimed that the drugs originated in Cambodia, and they have agents working to track down any accomplices in Taiwan.
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The Thailand Narcotics Suppression Board presents the seized drugs, totaling around 700 pounds of ketamine. (Viral Press)
“The ONCB has cooperation projects with the Airport Interdiction Task Force to suppress and intercept drugs in airports and the Seaport Interdiction Task Force for intercepting drug imports to the inner part of the country and exports to third countries,” Phanurat said.
A Thai SWAT team, working with Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Board, seized guns at a property in the Chinatown neighborhood of Bangkok on Jan. 17, 2018. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
The Thai authorities have intercepted more than four tons of crystal meth, two tons of ketamine and over 580 pounds of heroin in busts.
The narcotics board claimed that the drugs would otherwise end up in lucrative markets in nearby areas of Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong, Newsflare reported.
(this story has not been edited by TSA Mag staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
