Thai police arrested a trader who allegedly hoarded more than 40,000 face masks to sell at an inflated price.<br /><br />Undercover officers were tipped off about the overpriced COVID-19 face masks and arranged an order as part of a sting operation in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand on Monday (March 23) night .<br /><br />Price controls on face masks were introduced earlier this month to protect anyone from profiting from the items, which are in demand due to the coronavirus health emergency.<br /><br />Officers arrested two sellers, Prapornpong Kititan, 20, and Lawan Thammasarat, 37, at the meeting point and confiscated 750 face masks that they were selling at a wholesale price of 14THB (36GBX) each.<br /><br />The sellers reportedly told the police that they received the masks from a supplier who had a large stock of them.<br /><br />The police then set up another sting and arranged to buy 20,000 face masks from Tawich Wongprasert, 47, at a warehouse.<br /><br />Officers arrested him and allegedly found another 20,000 face masks that he had kept in storage.<br /><br />They confiscated 40,000 face masks which cost 285,000THB (7,435 GBP) and remanded the seller in custody. The wholesale price he was selling them for was 7.12 baht - almost three times the legal price cap of 2.5 baht.<br /><br />The director of the provincial ministry of commerce, Prasert Faichawna, said: "After we received information about this man from the two sellers who were arrested earlier we believed he had a big stock, more than he had offered to us.<br /><br />"So we came here with a search warrant and fortunately we were right about his hoarding."<br /><br />The police arrested Tawich on suspiciono of selling an overpriced controlled product.
