Irishman (53) arrested in Thailand after cannabis shop robbery

The 53-year-old was held by officers from Mueng Pattaya Police Station who have also detained a British and Korean man suspected of stealing 175,000 baht (€4,721) from the shop on Saturday.

The Irishman is being questioned by police under suspicion of being involved in the robbery.

The two suspected thieves have been named by local media as 47-year-old Englishman Markus Powell and 52-year-old Korean Myoung Kyu Lee.

Powell and Lee were arrested on a warrant issued by the Pattaya Provincial Court for “joint nighttime invasion of another’s property and joint nighttime robbery, using some vehicles to aid the crime.”

The arrests followed a complaint made by the owner of the cannabis shop on Pattaya Sai Sam Road, THC Trade Herbs & Cannabis, on March 25.

Parin Parnsing (44) claimed his Korean co-owner, Namil Kim, had been attacked by the thieves while he was working in an office behind the shop at about 11.20pm.

It has been alleged that two foreign men broke into the office and attacked Kim, although no weapons were used.

The thieves made off with Kim’s wallet which contained 5,000 baht cash and a safety box with approximately 170,000 baht in cash before fleeing the scene in a car.

Officers who examined the security cameras of the shop identified the culprits which then led to their arrests.

According to local reports, the 52-year-old Irishman is suspected to be involved in the robbery, although police do not have concrete evidence and are currently questioning him further.

Last month, the Korean victim, Namil Kim, was shot in the leg by a local man at a grocery store near his cannabis shop.

According to a witness, Kim appeared to be “drunk and was making a nuisance of himself”, prompting the customer to fire two shots, with one hitting the Korean in the leg while another struck a passing motorcyclist in the leg.

This was the second shooting in Pattaya in two months.

In January, the nephew of a former deputy mayor of Pattaya shot a British man in a road rage incident.

The 32-year-old man, identified only by his first name Apichat, shot 71-year-old Neil Roger after the motorcyclist honked his horn at him.

Roger, a British engineer, died as a result of the shooting.