SINGER CHARGED : ‘Joyce’ arrested in drug sting
Published on November 25, 2004
Triumphs Kingdom star, 4 others nabbed with over 4,000 methamphetamine pills
Singer Pornpun “Joyce Triumphs Kingdom” Ratanamethanont was arrested along with four other suspects, including her boyfriend, for possession of methamphetamine pills, police announced at a press conference yesterday.
During a sting operation at 11.30pm on Tuesday, police arrested the 24-year-old Joyce and her boyfriend, Jittapat Sangkhasuwan, 28, at Soi Ngamwongwan 8, seizing 300 methamphetamine tablets, said deputy commissioner Colonel Wichai Sangpraphai. The two confessed and police found a further 4,040 methamphetamine tablets in Jittapat’s home.
Tuesday afternoon, Krit Kasemwiriyakul, 31, was arrested for possession of 50 methamphetamine tablets, Wichai said. Krit led police later that day to Jesadaporn Srijariya, 21, and Damrongsak Chernsuk, 30, from whom he said he had received the drugs. Both were arrested. Jesadaporn then told police that Joyce and Jittapat had been the suppliers of the pills: the two were nabbed soon after.
Joyce told police that she and her partner had conducted only three drug deliveries and that she was using drugs herself to relieve intense stress over family problems, Wichai said. Jittapat said he’d met Joyce over a year ago and that she had been an accomplice on two of the three drug deliveries to which the couple had confessed, with each delivery including about 200 tablets.
At the press conference, Joyce, who appeared to be in distress, wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions. Jittapat proved somewhat more forthcoming before the two were led away by police.
Joyce and her friend Surattanawee “Bow” Suvipornsang were members of the girl duo Triumphs Kingdom until the band broke up in 2001. Joyce was scheduled to take the stage again at her label Bakery Music’s 10th anniversary “B-Day Bakery Music Independent Day” concert on December 10.
A Bakery Music public relations official told reporters that company executives had not yet been informed of the arrest. The official did not know whether the company would hold a press conference on the issue given that Joyce was no longer its employee. Yet if Joyce were to be charged by police, the official said, she would definitely be excluded from the upcoming concert as well as cut from the record company’s promotional TV programme “Chan Chao Khong” to air next Monday.
Joyce is the second singer to have been arrested for drug-related offences this year. Last May Worayos Boonthongnum, 23, former singer of the band Power Pat, was arrested for selling ecstasy pills.
