Bangkok’s Dark Underbelly: Police Bust Zombie E-Cigarette Racket Led by Kanchai

In a clandestine corner of Bangkok’s bustling Ram Inthra district, a rather bizarre saga unfolded that seemed to jump straight out of a dystopian novel—a tale of zombie e-cigarettes laced with mind-numbing anaesthetics. The story took a dramatic twist when the Consumer Protection Police Division, spearheaded by none other than the determined Police Major General Pattanasak Bupphasuwan, swooped down on a nondescript condominium, revealing a labyrinthine operation that catered to the capricious whims of nightlife aficionados.

Imagine this: a darkened room buzzing with the mechanical hum of clandestine creation. Here, 39-year-old Kanchai was caught red-handed with over 300 specially crafted cartridges, each laced with etomidate—a not-quite-legal anaesthetic sourced from the far edges of China. The police’s haul painted a vivid picture of danger—a potential Pandora’s box at the intersection of thrill and peril.

The plot thickened as Major General Pattanasak laid bare the insidious appeal of these e-cigarettes. Under the strobe lights of Bangkok’s liveliest nightclubs, these zombie smokes, concocted to deliver a trance-like intoxication, became the dreaded belle of the ball among heedless revellers. Not merely content with the usual, these thrill-seekers sought a product that was flirting with danger itself—a double-edged sword at the core of a night out in the city that never sleeps.

What truly set this provincial drama apart was its method of proliferation. Not confining itself to the smoke-filled backrooms of sketchy establishments, sales took flight in the virtual sphere, slipping silently through open chat rooms on the LINE application. The police executed a punctilious sting operation—think Sherlock Holmes meets the digital age—and traced money trails with the cunning precision of a labyrinth-solving detective. At every twisted turn, the breadcrumb trail led inevitably to Kanchai.

Assembling his elixirs with the sort of mad-hatter zeal typically reserved for eccentric alchemists, Kanchai emerged as a veritable puppet master of the underworld. His domicile transformed into a clandestine factory and his rather benign cannabis shop a front for more than just the mellow pursuits it promised.

This surreal episode marks the unfortunate inauguration of such homegrown ventures involving etomidate. Previously, these illicit goods came cloaked in the shadows, smuggled from distant lands, but Kanchai’s homemade approach was a first for the Land of Smiles. Yet, as the authorities tightened the noose, Kanchai meekly admitted to acquiring his combustible ingredients—from everyday suppliers, no less—with the etomidate threading into Thailand’s undercurrent courtesy of Chinese smugglers.

Yet, there’s a sobering pecuniary angle to this surreal tapestry. Each cartridge fetched a cool 2,200 baht—a princely sum for a moment of sensory oblivion—and filled Kanchai’s coffers with an impressive 20,000 baht daily revenue. Not bad for an operation that sprouted over a mere three to four months.

As the tale concluded with Kanchai facing the music, this episode wrote a cautionary chapter in Bangkok’s chequered history—a reminder that fascination with the forbidden can often beckon disaster with a siren song. Underneath the glimmering surface of Bangkok’s nightlife, such stories pulse quietly, weaving stories of caution and intrigue into the city’s vibrant tapestry.