Thai Drug Dealer Undergoes Surgery To Disguise As A Korean Man, Gets Arrested

According to a press release by the Thai investigative police on Friday, February 24, an infamous drug smuggler in Thailand had managed to fly under their radar for months by going under the knife to change his appearance into that of a Korean man.

On Thursday, February 23, the police raided a condo in the suburbs of Bangkok, where they caught a 25-year-old man named Jimin Seong for allegedly smuggling drugs into the country. Witnesses had described him as a “good-looking Korean man” with wavy hair and smooth skin. But here’s the twist: Jimin Seong is not Korean, and his real name is Saharat Sawanjaeng.

Saharat has been on the wanted list since last year for allegedly smuggling more than 2,500 grams and 290 tablets of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, into Thailand. According to reports, he is one of the major sources that are spreading illegal drugs in the capital city and its surrounding area.

While the police were on his tail, Saharat suddenly vanished. Months passed by, and then the police came across hearsay that traces the drugs back to a Korean dealer. An investigation was launched, and they finally realized that Saharat was living with his newly assumed identity of Jimin Seong. Apart from changing his name, the peddler also changed his hair and went under multiple plastic surgeries to drastically alter his facial features. The end result is so different from his original face that there is hardly any resemblance.

The police revealed that after his arrest, Saharat admitted to having connections all over the globe which helped him source drugs from the dark web using Bitcoin transactions. He has very limited proficiency in the Korean language, but he wants to live in South Korea because life in Thailand has gotten boring.

Saharat is being charged with importing and illegally distributing a category one drug in Thailand, and both of these offenses carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The police’s press release stated that his crimes “impacted national security and the general public’s safety” by making the drugs widespread in public.