Mr Somsak Sakhonkhiri, 48 years old, and his son have been arrested for involvement in drug-related money laundering. A Special Task Force busted the home of the former assistant village head on the accusation of duping village residents into opening bank accounts for laundering drug network money.
According to a Special Task Force of Narcotics Suppression Bureau Officials and army rangers, Mr Somsak was not at home when they arrived at his home but was spotted running away on sighting them. When arrested, he denied being involved in the drug trade but admitted helping residents in opening bank accounts for proper management of their moment, “I have even accompanied some of them to court and police station”, he added. He also emphasized that this has no connection with money laundering that he only ran because he mistook them for armed robbers.
However, there was an allegation by the police in 2015 that Mr Somsak helped 30 village residents to open bank accounts, where over 500 million baht circulated before it was later transferred to the account of a drug trafficker in Myanmar. Mr Somsak’s son and two other suspects were together arrested during the raid in 22 locations in Chaing Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, and drugs, 200 grammes of heroin, a pistol, and other items amounting to a minimum of 5 million baht were recovered.
