Three Swedes living in Thai pool villas were arrested as police froze millions from a global drug operation.
Three Swedish men accused of running major online drug sales from Thailand are now being held by Thai authorities and are expected to be sent to Sweden for detention hearings.
According to Swedish and Thai police, the men had been living a life of luxury in Thailand while allegedly controlling drug sales aimed at the Swedish market through websites and darknet platforms. Two of them were arrested in an exclusive residential area in Hua Hin, where Thai police said they lived in villas with swimming pools. The third was arrested in Bangkok.
Investigators say the network also laundered money through a range of businesses, including car repair shops and construction companies. During the raids, Thai police searched nine properties linked to the suspects and seized mobile phones, computers and cash.
“They made a good living from it”, said Johan Dire, head of the Greater Gothenburg intelligence section during a press conference on Friday.
Swedish police said the suspects had several million Swedish kronor in their accounts, which have now been frozen. Across the wider international operation, authorities said assets worth between 30 and 40 million Swedish kronor have been seized.
The arrests were made as part of the international police operation Pandora, led by Swedish police in cooperation with Europol. Police said more than 5,000 names were found in the suspects’ purchase records.
The three men, who are from Stockholm, Gothenburg and western Sweden, remain detained in Thailand while Sweden prepares the next legal steps.
Police model of the house of one of the Swedish men, it includes multiple swimmingpools and a slide.