PATTAYA, Chon Buri - Several attendants and customers at two nightclubs tested positive for drug use and a private club was found to be selling sex services when they were raided by police, local officials and soldiers.
The first raid was made about 3am at a nightclub called 18+ located on Pattaya Sai Sam Road. About 20 club staff were tested for use of illicit drugs and two came up positive, said Naris Niramaiwong, chief of Bang Lamung district office. Seven customers also tested positive for drugs, he said.
A number of baraku water pipes, which are prohibited from sale under an order issued recently by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), were also seized.
The raid was conducted by a combined force of over 70 police, local administrative officials and soldiers from the 21st Infantry Battalion.
Around 4am, the same force raided another nightclub, called Ninety-nine, on Soi Phet Trakul. Four club workers and guests tested positive to drugs, and two illegal migrant workers were found there, said Mr Naris.
Pol Col Ronnachai Chindamuk, deputy chief of Chon Buri provincial police, said operations were part of a series of crackdowns on illegal activities ordered by the provincial governor. The two nightclubs will be ordered to shut down by the provincial administrative authorities.
Mr Naris also led a raid on the Rioja Gentleman's Club on Soi 2 Wat Boon Kanchanaram about 6.30pm on Monday after a foreign man posing as a customer went inside first, asking to buy sexual services.
Officials later found the spy naked with a Thai woman in a jacuzzi in a room at the club, and two Thai women were caught providing sex services to foreign men identified as club patrons, said Mr Naris.
Dozens of condoms and lubricant gels found stored in a cabinet were seized as evidence, he said. Yatrung Taengkwa, 52, identified herself as the manager of the club and was detained for questioning.
