BANGKOK: Thai authorities have seized millions of baht in assets held by “Mr T” or the “Malaysian Iceman”, who acted as a key middleman for international drug syndicates.
According to a source, the authorities not only made the move of confiscating assets under “Mr T’s” name, but also seized assets held under his Thai wife and son’s names.
“Their assets (held by Mr T, his Thai wife and son) run into millions of Thai baht, with most of the assets located in Haadyai and other southern Thai provinces,” he told Bernama recently about the Malaysian man who was keenly sought after by the Thai drug enforcement authorities before his arrest recently.
The Thai authorities suspected that “Mr T” was the key middleman who brokered deals and facilitated the smuggling of hundreds of kilogrammes of drugs into Malaysia to be then re-exported to other countries.
The Johor-born man was nabbed at Haadyai airport last April following intense surveillance after a trip to northern Thailand, which the authorities alleged was to negotiate for another consignment of drugs for the international syndicates.
The Thai authorities said two Malaysian men who were arrested in Sadao in March last year with 282kg of “ice” told them during interrogation that the drugs they carried belonged to “Mr T”.
The two Malaysian couriers also claimed that “Mr T” had facilitated several other successful drug smuggling attempts into Malaysia, each over 100kg in consignment.
Meanwhile, according to the source, the assets seized under “Mr T’s” name include cash in various currencies, from Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Hong Kong dollar, Korean won, Indonesian rupiah, Swiss franc to US dollar.
The authorities also seized several local bank accounts held by the Malaysian man, who is in remand in Bangkok while the authorities complete their investigation into his alleged crimes.
Under Thai law, a suspect can be held in remand for up to 84 days.
The source said among the seized assets held under the name of “Mr T’s” wife and his son were cars and motorbikes, deposits in local banks, lottery bonds, condominium unit, plots of land and title deeds.
He declined to give the exact total amount of assets seized from the three, citing ongoing investigations.
The source also said that “Mr T” denied all the allegations against him throughout the investigations but the authorities are confident of their case against him as the suspect had been on their radar for a long time.
More suspects are expected to be hauled up to assist in the investigations. – Bernama
