FINN ARRESTED ON DRUGS CHARGES

PATONG: Kathu Police yesterday raided the home of a Finnish man,
finding the man naked and engaged in a solo sex party replete with
pornographic videos and a variety of implements. They also found the
drugs they were looking for.

Pol Cpl Somsak Nguanson, a police PR officer who serves as a
translator for the Kathu Police, told the Gazette today that the team
arrived at the man's 7-million-baht home at Tri Trang Beach, at the
southern end of Patong Bay, at about 4 pm.

The police, who had received a tip-off that the Finn, identified as
Markku Ilari Helim, 40, liked to have drug-fueled sex parties at his
home, presented a search warrant to the man's maid, a Mon woman who
was the only other person in the home at the time. The officers then
proceeded to the man's bedroom.

"After we knocked on his bedroom door he opened it a crack to see who
was there, but shut it when he saw it was the police.

"We told him we would charge him with resisting arrest if he refused
to let us in, so he opened the door. Inside, we found that he was
naked and had been watching a pornographic video," he said.

Police also found an unspecified amount of marijuana in the house,
along with a small amount of ya bah (methamphetamine). The man
admitted using marijuana, but told the officers that the ya bah had
been left there by one of the ladyboys or bar girls who sometimes
joined him for the sex parties, which he admitted hosting.

Helim was charged with drug possession and admitted the charge, Cpl
Somsak said. He was released on bail after spending one night in a
cell at Kathu Police Station.