A man from the Thai province of Ayutthaya was arrested last month and charged with possession of drugs and intent to distribute, after he allegedly gave away over 200,000 methamphetamine pills to friends who were down on their luck. But this isn’t your average drug dealer news story…
Police in Ayutthaya started an investigation last month, after the of meth on the black marketed plummeted from $8 to $3 a pill in a very short amount of time. There was no logical explanation for the sudden price drop until they heard about a local man giving away large quantities of pills totally free of charge. It was an unlikely story, but the tips checked out and when they finally apprehended 41-year old Prachaub Kanpecth, he admitted to being in possession of over 500,000 meth pills known as “ya ba” or “crazy drug”, which police estimate are worth around $6 million.
That’s the kind of stash you expect to find when busting a drug lord, but Kanpecth was a simple forager making a living by digging through trash and collecting forest honey. He told officers that he came into possession of the drugs by accident, after seeing a group of men getting out of a pickup truck and leaving a big package in the shrubbery on the side of a road. So he just took it and then started giving the pills away for free to his cash-strapped friends. They started selling it at abnormally low prices either to make some pocket money or pay off debts and accidentally brought down black market prices.
Photo: Sannok
“He claimed he has been giving [the pills] to his friends who needed money or who wanted to money to pay back debts,” Suriya Yoopeat, a police commander in Uthai district, told AFP. “As of now we don’t have any other evidence or witnesses to contradict his testimony.”
At the time of his apprehension, Prachaub Kanpecth had already given away about 200,000 meth pills, which let to him being charged with possession of drugs and intention to distribute.
Photo: Wikipedia
Let that be a lesson to you, kids, helping out your friends and giving stuff away for free don’t always count as good deeds.
Source: Channel New Asia/AFP
