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Published on August 16, 2007

Speaking yesterday at a press conference, Customs Department deputy director-general Sangkorn Phuengpradit identified the suspect as Chanoknant Worrachina, who confessed to receiving Bt70,000 to smuggle the drug from Argentina.

He said the suspect had behaved suspiciously at a checkpoint after getting off a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur. After undergoing an X-ray at a nearby hospital, Customs agents found 60 packs of the drug in her stomach and a long tube containing the drug in her vagina.

The drugs, weighing 900 grammes, have a street value in Thailand of around Bt4.5 million, Sangkorn said.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry yesterday warned Thais against smuggling narcotics into China, saying anyone carrying more than 50 grammes of illicit drugs would likely face life imprisonment if caught. The ministry said drug smuggling in China was punishable by death.

Ministry spokesman Tharit Jarungwat said two Thai nationals were currently in custody in Kunming after they were recently arrested. One of them was very sick and was allowed to buy medicine after a Thai consular official made a visit to the prison where the two have been confined pending trial.

Twenty Thai nationals were arrested in China in 2006 and another 42 arrested as of July 31. - The Nation