Thailand to review pardon rules after release of 85-year-old drug lord brings backlash

Laota Saenlee, a former anti-communist guerrilla turned drug runner, is freed after serving less than a decade of a life sentence

Laota Saenlee, a former anti-communist guerrilla turned drug runner linked to powerful Myanmar drug kingpins, was arrested by undercover officers in 2016 for selling crystal meth in the Golden Triangle drug-producing region.

Organised crime groups move an estimated tens of billions of dollars’ worth of heroin, methamphetamine and ketamine annually from the region.

Thailand’s corrections department said Monday that Laota was released from a maximum-security prison just north of the capital Bangkok on Friday following a series of royal pardons that reduced his life sentence to below the nearly 10 years he served.

The “former key drug offender” was freed due to his age and good behaviour, and local authorities would monitor him after his release, the department said in a statement.