Buriram Abbot Admits Ordering Monks to Buy Meth

Buriram abbot admits sending monks to buy meth with temple donationsLegacyPolice in Buriram have arrested four Buddhist monks and seized 184 methamphetamine pills. Officers followed the monks’ car for more than 40 kilometres before dawn on September 18. The abbot of Wat Pa Nong Hin in Prakhon Chai district later admitted sending two of his monks to buy the drugs. He said the money came from ceremony fees and from villagers’ donations at the temple. Police Lieutenant Colonel Suwat Nammongkol of the Buriram police narcotics unit led the operation. Border patrol police, soldiers, rangers and district officials joined his team. Officers had been tipped off about a drug handover near a Mun River bridge between Khu Mueang and Phutthaisong districts. There they spotted a black sedan they found suspicious, which ran red lights at several junctions. The car finally stopped at a red light at the Ban Nong Kung junction in Mueang Buriram. The driver was Phra Tang, a 31-year-old monk from Chonnabot district in Khon Kaen. A bag of 10 pills fell from his clothing onto the road as he got out. Officers found 89 more pills hidden in the robes of his passenger, 22-year-old Phra Phiao from Non Din Daeng district. Another 82 were under the carpet by the car’s console. Messages and bank transfer slips on Phra Tang’s phone led police to a third monk. Phra Plai, 27, is based at Wat Suwannaram in Phutthaisong district. Officers found him on his morning alms round and searched his room once he returned. Phra Plai admitted arranging the purchase the night before from teenagers in his village for 3,800 baht. He said Phra Tang gave him five pills, which he shared with another monk. Police seized the two pills left in a phone box in his room, along with smoking equipment. Police then questioned Phra Tam, the 32-year-old abbot whom Phra Tang had named as the buyer. His urine tested positive for methamphetamine. Phra Tam first denied taking drugs and suggested the result came from trying them a month earlier. He later admitted using methamphetamine two or three days before his arrest. He also denied ordering the purchase until Phra Tang showed officers their Facebook Messenger conversations about the drugs. The abbot then admitted telling the two monks to buy the pills for them to share at the temple. He said they had ordered a bag of 200 pills for 3,800 baht but received only 187. Phra Tang paid 1,000 baht and the abbot transferred another 1,000. The remaining 1,800 baht was due later. The abbot, in his seventh year as a monk, said he used drugs before his ordination but later quit. A temple boy who has since been arrested then gave him methamphetamine to try. He had used it since with the two monks. Phra Tam said the temple has only four monks. The fourth is an elderly man ordained a few days earlier. He said he was worried about the temple’s annual Dhamma event on September 20. The monks were defrocked after their arrest. Police said they are working to identify and arrest the teenagers in Phutthaisong who sold the drugs. In similar news

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Thai Post

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