SURAT THANI – A major Israeli drug dealer, who operated out of the restaurant he owned on Koh Phangan, was arrested on Friday with narcotics worth over 50 million baht seized, authorities said.
Shai Alfasi, 42, had been selling drugs via the WhatsApp Business messaging application, using a Hebrew name, said Pol Lt Gen Saksira Phuek-am, commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau.
After clients ordered via the app, drugs hidden in black socks were dropped off at designated locations, with pictures of the sites sent to buyers.
They paid for their orders by replacing the drugs with cash in the same socks, according to investigators.
Police agents posed as buyers and arrested Mr Alfasi as he arrived at the appointed location on a Honda ADV 350 motorbike to collect the money.
Mr Alfasi was the owner of the Lola bar and restaurant in the Hat Hin Kong area of the southern tourist island, Pol Lt Gen Saksira said.
A further search of his luggage and hidden compartments uncovered a variety of illicit drugs, including cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, LSD (“death stamps”), heroin, magic mushrooms and Labubu-shaped ecstasy pills. Their estimated value was over 50 million baht, Pol Lt Gen Saksira said.
A crackdown on the island since Monday had netted six drug suspects, he said, with Mr Alfasi considered the biggest figure arrested there so far.
Authorities in Thailand arrested an Israeli businessman and restaurant owner for running the largest drug network ever uncovered in the country.
— Noah’s Ark 🚢 (@NoahsArk1000) March 16, 2026
Why do they do such things everywhere they go? pic.twitter.com/eOWNCB7R5z
