Bernama was informed that the green light to send the Thai investigators to Malaysia was reached during a recent meeting between the two countries on anti-narcotics law enforcement cooperation in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.
The Thai investigators will follow up on new leads allegedly linking the diversified Malaysian company with transnational drug trade.
“They will seek more information about the company. They will discuss evidence and information,” a high-ranking source in the Thai investigation team told Bernama recently.
He said the trip to Malaysia had been tentatively scheduled at the end of the month.
“We want to know whether the company’s operations in Thailand and Malaysia are connected,” said the source.
Thailand has set up a powerful multi-agency team, comprising officers from the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) and Department of Business Development to probe the company.
The country’s central bank, Bank of Thailand (BoT), is also assisting in the investigation.
Since establishing its foothold in Thailand several years ago, the company has been aggressively expanding its business operations spanning several sectors, including property, entertainment, theme parks and restaurants, especially in Danok and Hatyai.
Malaysia, too, has set up a multi-agency task force, spearheaded by the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry, to investigate the Penang-based company.
Recently, Malaysian authorities raided several of the company’s premises and froze several bank accounts, amounting to RM177 million, linked to the company.
Another high-ranking source in the Thai narcotics enforcement agency disclosed to Bernama that they began to suspect a link between the company and the drug trade during an investigation into the seizure of 282kg of the synthetic drug “ice” in March last year.
The drug seizure saw two Malaysian drug couriers nabbed at the Sadao Immigration checkpoint.
During the interrogation of the suspects, he said, they gave useful information to the investigators.
“During a search of the suspects’ house, we found records of financial transactions which lead us to believe of a link between the seized drugs and the company,” he said.
The discovery of the alleged link, said the source, led the investigators to spend over a year investigating the company and its subsidiaries.
In April this year, investigators raided various subsidiaries belonging to the Malaysian company in Hatyai and Sadao.
The source said they had sent in a request to question the founder of the Malaysian company and seek clarification about the 14 million baht (RM1.75 million) seized from one of its subsidiaries by ONCB.
“Despite the request (to question the founder), he did not show up and only sent his legal representative and asked for the return of the money, but the head of ONCB refused to relent until the founder could present himself and explain the money trail,” he said.