POLICE are seeking a former Warrnambool man in relation to a major international heroin ring.
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Australian Federal Police working with Thai police seized 168 kilograms of heroin worth $95 million, packaged in seafood to be sent to Australia from a Thai fishing port.
The 61-year-old Warrnambool man is believed to have been living in Thailand for more than 20 years.
There is no suggestion by the Australian Federal Police or Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers that he was involved in drug smuggling.
The man has been named in Thai newspapers as the foreign boss of Pitsmai International Trading Services in Ranong.
The man has not been seen in the wild Thai-Myanmar (Burma) border port Ranong for several days.
He is understood to also have links with other companies Natural Marine Resources and Myanmar Products Import and Exports.
Thai police have arrested a 29-year-old Malaysian and a 30-year-old Thai man in connection with the seizure.
Police said the heroin, believed to have come from Myanmar, was one of the biggest seizures of illegal drugs in Thailand in recent years, with 420 bars of heroin packed among seafood products containers on the premises of Pitsmai International Trading Services in the fishing port, with some labelled to be sent to Preston in Victoria.
Ranong is known as a port rife with smuggling — from illicit drugs to people.
Most of the port workers are from Myanmar, which is also called Burma. The AFP played a key role in a two-month Thai-led operation to seize the drugs.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Ramzi Jabbour said that earlier this year the AFP obtained intelligence suggesting a transnational organised crime syndicate was planning an importation of heroin from Thailand to Australia.
“Through the AFP’s International Liaison Network, the AFP engaged the Royal Thai Police and entered into a join investigation targeting this criminal enterprise,” Assistant Commissioner Jabbour said.?
?With The Age
