Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) third division chief Pol Maj-General Wutthipong Phetkamnerd said yesterday that following a tip-off, Jenny Carmen del Nozio Acuna Pacheko, 55, had her luggage searched at the airport when she disembarked from a flight from Peru. Seven bottles of lotion laced with cocaine were found.

According to police, she confessed to smuggling the drugs and said she was to deliver them to a man she identified as Michael Shabanov, 31. Police arrested him later at a Bang Na hotel where he was waiting for her, Wutthipong said.

Mixing cocaine with skin lotion was a new smuggling tactic and the drugs could be extracted later, Wutthipong added.

Three other drug busts were reported at the same press conference.

Four Thai men were arrested on Monday and 227,400 “yaba” pills were seized in Nonthaburi’s Muang district following a tip-off. Khomkrit Chanleuchai, 42, and Phusit Chaiburi-opas, 27, were arrested at a house where they allegedly kept illicit drugs smuggled from the North. Police later arrested Alongkorn Khongthana, 36, and Chulapong Saelee, 43, who showed up to allegedly collect the pills for distribution.

The second drug bust occurred on Sunday when four southern residents were arrested allegedly in possession of 988,000 yaba pills, a pistol and seven bullets at a house in Phatthalung’s Kong Ra district, police said. Following a tip-off, police found 724,000 pills in a car and 264,000 pills in the house.

The third bust took place last Thursday when Suriyan Kaewsrichan, 26, was arrested along with 300,000 Yaba pills at a checkpoint in Chumphon’s Tha Sae district, police said.