The Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) has ordered the indictment of four suspects allegedly linked to a transnational drug trafficking network involving Thai Airways flight attendant Meena Kondo in a heroin smuggling case.
Ms Meena was accused of smuggling heroin into Australia. She was arrested on June 25 at Melbourne Airport, where authorities found about 1kg of heroin in her tote bags.
Watcharin Panurat, director-general at the Office of Investigation, on Monday said Attorney-General Itthiporn Kaewthip signed the indictment order on Sept 18 against four suspects.
They are Uthai “Jojo” Khanapiwat, Nantawat “Nat” Yingphatthanawong, Ekkawit Yongnichakun and Chantra Chanu.
Three male suspects — Mr Uthai, Mr Nantawat and Mr Ekkawit — have been arrested in Thailand. Mr Uthai allegedly acted as the courier, Mr Nantawat allegedly stored the drugs, while Mr Ekkawit allegedly delivered bags containing heroin to Ms Meena.
The four faced charges including jointly participating in a transnational criminal organisation and conspiring to commit drug offences, possessing heroin for sale with intent for commercial purposes, leading to distribution among the public and threats to state security or public safety.
The petition also requests the court to order the seizure of seven Thai elephant-patterned cloth bags and one mobile phone.
A separate investigation will examine allegations that suspects No.3 and No.4 helped others avoid punishment by damaging, concealing, removing or destroying evidence.
He said prosecutors have set up a team to participate in the investigation because parts of the case occurred outside Thailand. The team held a meeting with the Narcotics Suppression Bureau on Sept 9.
After the meeting, prosecutors found that they had not yet pursued another charge.
Investigators and prosecutors subsequently went to the prison to notify the suspects of the additional charge of attempting to export heroin and complete the case file before submitting it to the attorney-general.
The attorney-general assigned prosecutors from the Office of the Narcotics Case Litigation 9 to handle the case.
The prosecutors would file the indictment with the Criminal Court. Three suspects are in custody, while the fourth suspect, Ms Chantra, remains at large.
She is suspected of operating a Facebook account, “Rose Rose”, that contacted Ms Meena for the paid work of transporting the tote bags to Australia.