Police bust secret society drug bash on Sukhumvit, 124 arrested
The raid was only possible due to tip-offs, police say, adding that the secret society regularly organised such events through Instagram
Police rounded up 124 people, many of them with high social status, from a drug party at a hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 31 late on Sunday night.
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.
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.
