EXECUTIONER ARREST LINKED TO DRUGS RING

Police may have cracked a drugs ring flourishing in a city jail, after the
arrest on Friday of a 39-year-old executioner from Bang Kwang maximum
security prison.

One Corrections Department official, and three others, including a former
policeman, were arrested. Deputy Interior Minister Vatana Asavahame has
ordered an inquiry.

The drama unfolded after executioner Prayut Sanan's wife, Manee Manee-in,
30, was found in possession of 110,000 methamphetamine pills in front of
Phra Nangklao hospital in Nonthaburi's Muang district, police said.

A search of their home and her husband's car in the prison parking lot
yielded another 700,000 tablets, four pistols and an assault rifle, they said.

The three others arrested were Chatchawan Primkamin, 50, Somchai
Kusolpiensuk, 51, an ex-policeman, and Samart Kongsuth, 38, a Corrections
Department official.

Police said they confessed to possessing the drug but denied intending to
sell it to prisoners.

Pol Gen Pornsak Durongkhaviboon, the national police chief, said the arrest
confirmed suspicions the drugs trade was flourishing in prisons.

Siwa Saengmanee, the Corrections Department chief, will be asked to step up
measures to deal with the problem.