BANGKOK (The Nation Thailand (ANN)/AFP): Police in Thailand detained more than 120 people found in their underwear at a drug-fuelled party in Bangkok, officers told AFP Monday.
Police Colonel Pansa Amarapitak told AFP that they were tipped off about a "drug party" in a room at a hotel in central Bangkok early on Sunday morning.
Police photos showed a room full of mostly male suspects in handcuffs and wearing nothing but underpants as officers searched them for drugs.
They found 31 of the 124 people arrested were in possession of illegal narcotics such as crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine, Pansa said.
He added that all of them tested for the substances and 66 were found with traces in their system.
He said all except two were men, and around five were foreigners.
Police are seeking the courts' permission to hold those suspected of drug possession for questioning beyond the 48-hour window, Pansa told AFP Monday.
The rest have been released, Pansa told AFP.
Thailand is a major hub for illegal drug trafficking in Southeast Asia, and police raids and seizures of hard narcotics like heroin and methamphetamine are common.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said a record 190 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year.
Thailand has tough anti-drugs laws.
Possession of category one drugs, which include ecstasy and methamphetamine, can bring jail sentences of up to 10 years.
Meanwhile, The Nation Thailand reported that the raid was only possible due to tip-offs, police say, adding that the secret society regularly organised such events through Instagram.
Pol Major Witthawat Chinkham, commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 5, said on Monday that most of the arrested people were homosexual men, with two women among them who may have been friends.
Witthawat spoke to reporters after attending a meeting at the Thonglor Police Station on the drug party case. He noted that the suspects were members of a secret society that used Instagram to coordinate these events.
He added that the group was a closely guarded secret and the raid was only possible due to tip-offs from concerned members of the public.
He said this group has been holding drug parties at several hotels around Bangkok, with the latest hotel being used twice. Police are taking action regardless of the suspects’ high social status, he said.
Police bust secret society drug bash on Sukhumvit, 124 arrested
Witthawat said officers from Thonglor Police Station have taken 31 suspects, one of them a woman, to the South Bangkok Criminal Court to be charged with possession of narcotics. Another 66, including a woman, were charged at the South Phra Nakhon District court for abusing drugs. All 66 volunteered to undergo a drug rehabilitation programme.
Witthawat said the remaining 27 people did not test positive for drugs and were released after being fined for unlawful gathering.
Pol Colonel Pansa Amarapithak, commander of the Thonglor Police Station, said that investigators would hold a meeting at Metropolitan Police Division 5 on Tuesday to review the case and determine if any further charges should be made against those arrested. - Agencies
