How is the justice department ever going to know what is going on in these pictures without the perpetrators pointing at the gear?
This bust was for something that I was unaware was even a thing. Some people were making ketamine vapes and jaysus man, do we really need to get that trashed all the time? I have never done ketamine but it is my impression that it is an animal tranquilizer and that's what people want to put into their lungs? Yikes. I'm glad I am just some nerd who rarely does any drugs because that sounds dangerous as hell to me.
Once again the mostly plainclothes officers don't seem to have any issue with their identities being revealed in the news but I guess I can appreciate the fact that the press who reported on this didn't have the suspects identities revealed. The Thai police caught some international flack not that long ago for not only publishing real pictures of suspects, but also posting their passport photo pages and other ID cards online for the public.
This particular bust took place in Pattaya, which if you have heard me talk about at all you already know I think it is a terrible place and outside of hookers (if that is your thing) I see no reason for anyone to go there.
I do enjoy the police evidence photos because it all just seems so random. In this picture we have two nondescript bottles, a blender, and what appears to be Head and Shoulders shampoo. Not exactly Breaking Bad level of stuff. The next one was far more interesting though.
I don't have any idea what this is but without one of the suspects pointing at it I don't think it will be admissible in court :P
Here is something else kind of fun. According to the list of things discovered it once again appears as though this is a relatively big haul as one of the things mentioned was 500 grams of "high grade methamphetamine."
Once again though, the focus went on this bust so quickly in the news because guess what!? The suspects are all foreigners again! This time thy are Chinese and Vietnamese, not a Thai person to be seen because we all know that Thai people would never be involved in the drug trade and this is exclusively a foreigner-made problem... right?
In the articles they dont' post the images of the suspects but they do post several of the suspects' full names. I don't know the protocol here but I would be surprised if there actually is any. At least they aren't putting people's passport pictures up there anymore.
The crackdown is part of a broader directive from Police Region 2 Commander Police Lieutenant General Chatchai Surachetphong, targeting Chinese-run criminal networks
I mean great, but wouldn't it make sense to just target criminal networks in a general sense?
I have a theory as to why it is always the foreigners that are being busted and put in the news: The Thai criminal networks are likely friends with the police in an obviously corrupt way and they give away information to the cops about these "competitors" so that the local mafia/narcos make more money and therefore have more money to give the police in hush money. The police get to appear as though they are genuinely interested in public safety while still getting back-handers from the criminal underworld.
I dont' do drugs personally outside of a puff here and there on a joint that is being LEGALLY passed around because weed is legal in Thailand. I can't imagine the mind of a person that is interested in a dodgy bathtub sort of vape pen that has meth and ketamine in it. At the same time though, i think that if you want to ruin your life with that sort of crap, you should be free to pursue your own self-destruction how you see fit.
The Thai government will not be successful in removing drugs from the streets and I really don't think that they are interested in actually doing so. Drugs are so available in Thailand that it almost seems like a joke when a bust is in the papers.