Five senior officers at Bangkok’s Wat Phraya Krai Police Station were transferred to inactive posts with immediate effect pending a probe result over alleged negligence after a Sunday morning raid of a pub in their jurisdiction found wrongdoings.
The pub faces closure for five years.
The transferred policemen were precinct superintendent Pol Colonel Kosit Boonthawee, two deputies Pol Lt-Colonel Pipat Boonpitak and Pol Lt-Colonel Chanan Prempleumchit, and two inspectors Pol Lt-Colonel Chanwit Eiumla-or and Pol Major Pornchai Sukcharoen.
Metropolitan Police Division 5 chief Pol Maj-General Mongkol Warunno confirmed that police would push to have this pub closed for five years as per National Council for Peace and Order order No 22/2558.
The 56 Arena Music Hall on Charoenrat Road in Bang Kho Laem district, Thon Buri, was raided at 2.30am by a team from the Provincial Administration Department and other officials.
They found the pub to be unlicensed, open too late and 114 patrons (78 men and 36 women) tested positive for illicit drug use. Two other patrons were under 20. The authorities also collected 200 small sealed plastic bags of crystal meth, 45 of ketamine and nine of ecstasy from the floor.
The raid followed complaints filed at the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection about drug use at the pub and its late closing times. The pub owner, whose name was not released, was charged with operating the facility without a licence, selling alcohol beyond legal hours and to persons aged under 20, advertising alcohol, allowing entry to persons under 20, and allowing drug use on the premises.
