Weerayuth Pan-inth (left) and
Lertmongkol Thitiwonno (right) are arrested inside a Plutaluang hotel room.
Patcharapol Panrak
Gold robes shone a little less brightly in Sattahip last
week as Sattahip police arrested current and former monks for allegedly
using area temples as covers for drug dealing.
Lertmongkol Thitiwonno, 37, a Prachinburi monk
temporarily serving at Plutaluang Temple, was arrested Sept. 23 along with
two others in a hotel where police said they were using and selling
methamphetamines.
The arrest came three days after National Command Center
for Drugs officers apprehended Chatchai Khaonuan, 24, and Somchart Banchuen,
23, two recently defrocked monks, for allegedly selling drugs and
intimidating priests at Sattahip’s Thepprasit Temple.
Lertmongkol’s arrest came after NCCD investigators heard
rumors of drugs being smuggled into the Plutaluang temple. A robed informant
arranged to purchase three methamphetamine tablets from Lertmongkol, who
allegedly sent Weerayuth Pan-inth, 25, to deliver the ya ba to the
cooperating monk’s dormitory where police arrested him.
Under interrogation, the Singburi man gave up Lertmongkol
and his alleged partner, Sunthree Sa-ngiam, 25, who were found in a
Plutaluang hotel room, along with four additional pills.
Police said Lertmongkol confessed to the drug selling,
saying he’d been having problems with his new abbot in Plutaluang and,
rather than be defrocked, changed into civilian clothes in a temple
restroom, then met up with Sunthree to rent a hotel room to consume and sell
ya ba.
In the other case, Chatchai and Somchart - both
ex-convicts recently released from prison after serving four years for
robbery - already had been defrocked a month ago for inappropriate behavior
and allegedly physically threatening other monks.
Pongsak Atikhunno, a monk at Thepprasit Temple, alleged
to police the pair had been ordained only so they could use temple grounds
as a clandestine base for drug dealing.
Once they were defrocked, he said, the two became angry
and returned to the temple and forced him to buy drugs under threat of
violence. Cooperating with police, the monk set up a drug buy, with officers
arresting the two when they arrived to make a deal for three ya ba pills.
