A Russian man has been arrested at the customs office in Koh Samui for allegedly smuggling into Thailand 6.5 kilogrammes of cocaine worth about 26 million baht.
Kulis Sombatsiri, director-general of the Customs Department at the Surat Thani island office, said in a news conference on Monday that Sunday's arrest of Sergei Lelekov was made by customs and Office of the Narcotic Control Board, and Narcotic Suppression Bureau officers.
According to Mr Kulis, Silk Air staff brought two suitcases to the Ko Samui customs office for officials to check before delivering them to a passenger at Samui Diving Resort.
The officers scanned the bags and found a strange object attached to the upper side of one suitcase. The airline was told to tell the passenger to pick up his luggage at the customs office.
Lelekov arrived and confirmed ownership of the bags, which he said Silk Air that he lost on his trip from Singapore to the resort island on Nov 14.
Customs had the Russian open the suitcases. Inside one was only three shirts, plus a flat package hidden under the lid. In that package were five packs of cocaine weighing altogether 6.5kg.
The Russian was charged with smuggling narcotics into the country with intent to sell.