PHUKET: Police have arrested three suspects, including a Thai-British man, who were found with 39,820 methamphetamine (ya bah) pills hidden in toy remote-controlled cars that were delivered to Phuket from Bangkok by a private parcel delivery service.

Bangkok Post: Pol Maj Gen Surachate ‘Big Joke’ Hakparn was approved Thursday to become the next chief of the Immigration Bureau, with an automatic promotion to the three-star rank of lieutenant-general.

Deputy tourist police chief Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn is tipped to become the new Immigration Bureau (IB) commissioner in the upcoming annual police reshuffle.

The Police Service Commission held a meeting Thursda to deliberate the reshuffle list involving officers in positions ranging from commanders to deputy commissioners general. The two-hour meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, linked by the public to Pol Maj Gen Surachate and his rapid career rises.

Thaiger – A foreign man, who set fire to a house he was living in with his Thai wife, tried to jump off a cliff in Rawai this morning.

Firefighters were notified about the incident at a house in Rawai earlier today.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, the house was already well ablaze. It took half an hour to put out the fire. Furniture, walls and ceilings inside the house were extensively damaged.

Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos says, “the foreign man living in the house with his Thai wife set the house on fire this morning. After that he headed to the windmill viewpoint overlooking Yanui Beach on his motorbike.”

From Khaosod English. BANGKOK — A court sentenced a Laotian drug lord to life in prison Wednesday after handing down his second guilty verdict in six months on narcotics charges.

Xaysana Keopimpha was convicted and sentenced by the Criminal Court along with a Thai codefendant, Choompol Panomprai, for conspiring to sell and distribute massive quantities of amphetamines in August 2016.

The sentence was reduced from death due to their cooperation with investigators, the court said.

A third man, Ratchapol Ratsapolpakorn, was acquitted of charges related to his alleged handling of money from their drug sales.

All three men were acquitted for another drug case involving selling more than 2.3 million pills of amphetamine.

Bangkok Post: Two teenage girls were killed and their parents received burns when a fierce fire gutted their home in Nong Chok district, Bangkok, around dawn on Thursday morning.

Fire trucks and crews were rushed to the house at Suetong housing estate on Suwinthawong 29 in Nong Chok area immediately the fire was reported about 5.30am, Lam Pakchi police said.