Thai police arrest six Peruvians for cocaine smuggling

BANGKOK, Aug 16 (TNA) - Thai police on Wednesday arrested six men from Peru for attempting to smuggle 6.7 kilogrammes of cocaine into the kingdom at Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport, the country's drug suppression police chief said Thursday.

Pol. Lt-Gen. Watcharapol Prasarnrachakit, chief of the drug suppression police, told a press conference the men had swallowed the cocaine after it was divided into small portions and wrapped in plastic bags, with each of them swallowing around 100 bags.

Gen. Watcharapol said the drug carriers were part of an international cocaine trafficking ring and their arrests were made possible by intelligence cooperation between US and Thai police.

The Thai drug suppression chief said the men said they were hired at US$3,000 each by an American man to deliver the cocaine to a South American recipient in Pratunam and that they were made to swallow the drugs to avoid police detection.

According to the US police, Gen. Watcharapol said, uneducated, poor Peruvians have been drawn into smuggling drugs by handsome rewards from dealers and efforts would be made with cooperation from Peruvian authorities to suppress cocaine smuggling rings in the South American nation.

TNA