Heroin smuggler ‘resigns’ from Thai cabinet under cloud of suspicion

Convicted heroin smuggler -cum-cabinet member announced his resignation yesterday amid rifts with numerous top figures, including PM Prayuth Chan-ocha. 

One of the most controversial politicians in the cast of dubious characters comprising the military-backed government, Thammanat Prompao left his post as deputy minister of agriculture about the same time his dismissal was published in the Royal Gazette, suggesting it was not voluntary.

It comes days after his rumored attempt to engineer the downfall of Prayuth and five other ministers in a no-confidence vote failed. Thammanat denied that he had been plotting to oust Prayuth at a hasty press conference yesterday, saying he’d been considering resigning for months because the current political climate makes him “uneasy.”

“I don’t like the atmosphere of the political divide at the moment. I do not see the…