Thailand seizes nearly 1 billion USD worth of ketamine
(VOVWORLD) - Thailand has seized almost 1 billion USD worth of contraband ketamine, most of it probably destined for Europe, Japan or Korea, the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau said Thursday.
 Officials view the seized 11.5 tonnes of ketamine, in the country's largest seizure ever, worth nearly 30 billion baht (991 million USD) at a warehouse in Chachoengsao, Thailand, November 12, 2020. (Office of the Narcotics Control Board/Handout via REUTERS) |
The bureau said the size of the haul pointed to a multinational network, and that Thailand would pursue it with other countries and international agencies. The drug is not popular in Thailand, and is mostly sold abroad, it said.
In medicine, ketamine is used as an anaesthetic or an anti-depressant, but as a recreational drug it is used to induce dreamy or trance-like sensations, and sometimes hallucinations.
Investigators found more than 450 bags of the drug at a warehouse in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok.
Minister of Justice Somsak Thepsutin said this discovery is only the beginning and there will be further investigations to seize ill-gotten gains connected to drug smuggling.