Drug kingpin with B1m bounty expatriated to Thailand
published : 9 Apr 2026 at 07:40
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Wassayos Ngamkham
A fugitive Thai drug kingpin with a 1-million-baht bounty, who was wanted under 60 arrest warrants and played dead, was arrested in South Korea and extradited to Thailand on Tuesday.
Authorities brought the suspect identified only as Thapanan aka Noo Chen, 43, to a press conference at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) on Tuesday after his arrival at Suvarnabhumi International Airport from South Korea.
According to the ONCB, Mr Thapanan was a drug addict who became a small drug trafficker in areas along Srinagarindra Road in Samut Prakan province from 2000-2002.
Later, he developed ties with ethnic groups in a neighbouring country and had a drug plant built near Thailand. His network smuggled tens of millions of speed pills and more than a tonne of crystal meth into Thailand for about a decade. More than 60 warrants had been issued for his arrest.
In 2009, he was arrested with 26,000 speed pills in Samut Prakan and fled to a neighbouring country during his appeal.
In late 2022, Mr Thapanan was reportedly "murdered" with his body being dumped into the Moei River in Myawaddy. However, Thai immigration police later discovered that he was alive.
The suspect hid in Laos, Vietnam, Japan and finally in South Korea where he was arrested on Monday.
The ONCB said that Mr Thapanan’s cartel was behind 25-30% of narcotics smuggled into Thailand annually.
Vocabulary
- appeal: to make a request that a court change a decision of a lower court - ยื่นอุทธรณ์
- bounty: money given as a reward, of for helping catch or kill a criminal - เงินรางวัล
- cartel (noun): a group of separate companies (or individuals) that agree to increase profits by fixing prices and not competing with each other - กลุ่มบริษัทที่ตกลงราคาขายร่วมกันเพื่อไม่ให้มีการแข่งขันกัน
- ethnic group: a group of people with the same language, culture and history, usually a minority, not the largest group in the country - กลุ่มชาติพันธุ์
- extradite: to officially send back someone who has been accused or found guilty of a crime to the country where the crime was committed for a trial - ส่งตัวกลับ
- kingpin (noun): the most important person, group, country, etc. in an organization or activity - ตัวการสำคัญ, ตัวการใหญ่
- neighbouring: located or living near or next to a place or person - ติดกัน, ที่อยู่ใกล้เคียง, ที่ตั้งอยู่ใกล้เคียง
- smuggle: to take drugs, money, people, etc. to or from a place secretly and often illegally - ลักลอบนำเข้า
- suspect: a person who is thought to have committed a crime - ผู้ต้องสงสัย
- trafficker: someone in the business of buying and selling things illegally or of illegally transporting people for work in other countries or areas - ผู้ลักลอบค้าสินค้าผิดกฎหมายหรือลักลอบขายแรงงานผิดกฎหมาย
- warrant (noun): a legal document that is signed by a judge and gives the police authority to do something - หมาย
