Suspected drug dealer Killed, Ghanaian Accomplice Arrested

A suspected Singaporean drug dealer was killed in a duel with Bangkok -in Thailand - city police yesterday. Three suspected accomplices, including a Ghanaian were arrested later.

Tan Buck Weng, 39, from Singapore, was shot twice in the chest in a gunfight with a police squad on Thiem Ruam Mit road, Huay Kwang district.

The police said the suspect fired on them first with his 11mm pistol.

Shortly after the shooting, three other drug suspects were seized in two separate raids.

Two of them were Tan's close aides, police said. Kene Kofiat Aha, 28, from Ghana and his Thai wife Thanawan Phumrat, 28, were arrested with 15 grammes of cocaine in a raid on their apartment unit on Phatthanakarn road.

Another police team raided Tan's house in Soi Onnuj 36 and seized 36 bars of cocaine weighing one gramme each, packaging equipment, 300,000 baht cash and three bank passbooks.

Tan's Thai wife Duanghathai Duangcharoen was charged with possessing illicit drugs with intent to sell.

Pol Maj-Gen Thirasak Nguanbanchong, chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's division 1, said Tan was a member of the 24K gang.

Tan was known to have sold cocaine and ecstasy drugs at many nightspots, and had smuggled women to Singapore and the Philippines for prostitution, said Pol Maj-Gen Thirasak.

Police were looking for other 24K gang members, he said.

Tan was also wanted in connection with the shooting of his former Singaporean partner, Lu Gee Cheng, who sustained severe injuries earlier this year.