Bangkok —
On August 22nd, 2024, Thai immigration officials and related agencies announced the arrest of two Taiwanese nationals involved in a cross-border cannabis smuggling operation.
The suspects, whose names were withheld by the police, were apprehended in Bangkok’s Bang Rak and Din Daeng districts. They face charges of planning to export a controlled drug without permission and overstaying their visas.
The arrests followed a tip-off from a concerned citizen about a Taiwanese group planning to export cannabis to Taiwan for resale illegally. Cannabis is legal for sale in Thailand since 2022.
Upon investigation, it was revealed that the operation was linked to a now-closed cannabis shop that sold cannabis buds online in Thailand. Local authorities found cannabis buds, weighing scales, packaging bags, sealing equipment, and various electronic devices during the raid.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand confirmed that the Taiwanese suspects have criminal records in Taiwan for importing and distributing cannabis and are believed to have been sourcing their product from Thailand. The investigation also revealed that the group had used encrypted messaging apps like WeChat, Line, WhatsApp, and Telegram to coordinate the smuggling and sales in Taiwan.
Cannabis is currently decriminalized in Thailand but exporting and importing it without legal permission is still a legal offense, notes TPN.
The prior government, under now deposed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, had planned at one point to recriminalize cannabis but had instead after months of protests from pro-cannabis groups, including a hunger strike at Parliament, decided to regulate the controversial plant instead. The new government, under just elected new Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, has yet to officially announce their cannabis policy but is likely to continue the plan to regulate, versus recriminalize, its use.
Thailand has thousands of legal cannabis dispensaries and it is estimated to be a business worth billions of baht in the future but is still not fully regulated to where it delivers the government tax income.
This article originally appeared on our sister website The Pattaya News.
