Chiang Mai –
Japanese national Katsuhisa Komiya, 41, and his four Thai employees were placed under arrest yesterday, October 3, after allegedly illegally growing marijuana at their apartment in Chiang Mai and secretly delivering the merchandise back to sell in Japan.
The capture took place after Chiang Mai police received an Interpol alert and a search warrant from the Thai Criminal Court, stating that a Japanese man had rented a commercial building to grow marijuana products in the province before packing them and sending them out to sell in his home country.
During the search, a total of 2 kilograms of dried marijuana, 407 marijuana plants and seedlings, 4 bottles of 200-gram hemp, 27 sheets of hemp wax, and 3 cannabis oil extraction machines were discovered on the second floor of the building.
Katsuhisa and his employees were taken to the Chiang Mai Police Station where he reportedly confessed to committing illegal behavior, claiming that he was smuggling, growing, and selling hydroponics marijuana products and hired both foreign and Thai people to help him operate the business.
According to his statement, he would mainly contact his Japanese clients via Twitter and lied that the company was legitimately allowed to plant and produce marijuana. They would begin trading before Katsuhisa would export the illegal products to the destination country.
Five suspects in total are now detained at the Chiang Mai Police Station before being transferred for legal proceedings at Thailand’s Bureau of Narcotics.
