Cornered at a gas station, police made an arrest. A young man of Thai-Australian mixed heritage. Secretly smuggling. Illegal drugs. For sale in Phuket province.
On 9 Jan 2026 GMT+7, Pol. Maj. Gen. Narongrit Dansuwan, Deputy Commander of Region 8 Police, along with Pol. Maj. Gen. Sinlert Sukhum, Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, Pol. Col. Aknit Danpitaksat, Deputy Commander of Phuket Provincial Police, and Pol. Col. Somsak Thongkliang, Chief of Wichit Police Station, held a meeting to plan an operation to inspect and arrest suspects involved in a drug trafficking network smuggling drugs into Phuket.
Meanwhile, Pol. Lt. Col. Suthon Thongphan, Deputy Chief of Wichit Police's Investigation Division, led a drug suppression team from the Phuket Provincial Police Investigation Division and Wichit Police Station to stake out and inspect the cargo center branch at Wirat Hongyok, Wichit Subdistrict, Mueang Phuket District, after receiving a tip from the Ranong Provincial Police Investigation Division that a drug network from central Thailand was covertly sending drugs via a private courier company to a recipient who specified the pickup location as the front of Big C department store in Wichit Subdistrict, Mueang Phuket.
At 14:00 on the same day, a teenage male later identified as Thammarat, 16, arrived to collect the suspicious package. Police revealed themselves and conducted a search, finding a cardboard box containing 60,000 methamphetamine tablets and 2 kilograms of crystal meth (ice).
When questioned, Thammarat admitted that Gabriel, 22, had hired him to pick up the package. Earlier that morning, he had already received one box. He then led officers to seize additional packages at a house in Chalong Subdistrict, Mueang Phuket District, which was Gabriel's residence. Inside a room, police found 60,000 methamphetamine tablets and 4 kilograms of crystal meth.
Gabriel had fled before police arrived. Authorities seized all the drugs as evidence and detained Thammarat for legal proceedings. Investigations continue to locate Gabriel and his associates to bring them to justice.
Police investigations revealed that Gabriel is a Thai-Australian mixed heritage man living in a luxury housing estate in Chalong Subdistrict, Mueang Phuket. After the drug suppression team arrested Thammarat, who was hired to collect drugs at the private courier center, the drugs were to be delivered to Gabriel's residence. This method of smuggling drugs via courier companies had been used before. Following coordination with Ranong Provincial Police Investigation Division, Thammarat was apprehended with the drugs, which have a street value exceeding 7 million baht. This represents the largest drug seizure in the Wichit Police Station area in several years.
Most recently, at 22:10 on 9 Jan 2026 GMT+7, the drug suppression team from Phuket Provincial Police Investigation Division and investigators from Wichit Police Station arrested Gabriel, 22, along with his girlfriend at a gas station less than one kilometer from the Region 8 Police Headquarters and the Phuket checkpoint. They were waiting to drive a car out of the area. Both were taken back to Wichit Police Station for further interrogation before formal charges are filed.