Canadian DJ and British tourists arrested in Pattaya bar raided by police

A Canadian disc jockey and a two British tourists were arrested in a neon-lit cannabis club in Pattaya, Thailand. Police raided the Bandobar nightclub following reports that foreigners were holding a rowdy party and possibly using drugs on the evening of September 14.

They barged into the shop and reportedly found several male holidaymakers sitting with Thai sex workers and smoking cannabis joints despite a sign outside clearly prohibiting the narcotic.

Police Colonel Napatpong Kositsuriyamanee, superintendent of the Chonburi Immigration Bureau, said cops halted the party to conduct an inspection.

He said: 'The police separated the men and women into two groups before checking the passports of foreigners and the ID cards of Thai tourists through a biometric system to find overstayers. Everyone in the shop was lined up to be tested for drugs.'

The club owner, a Thai woman named Suwan, 26, initially protested the raid but was silenced when police found a packet of a white, ketamine-like substance on the club floor.

Officers detained anadian DJ David, 41, and Suwan's British boyfriend Daniel, 32, for working without a permit.

Another Brit, Zico, 23, was allegedly found to have carried a sword into the bar. He tried to escape but was caught by police hiding in a grove of banana trees around half a mile away.

The Chonburi Immigration boss said: 'We will have the club's licence suspended for violating the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health. As for the foreign tourists, we took them for interrogation at the provincial immigration office.'

The tourists have been handed over to the Pattaya City Police Station to face charges.

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand. In the ensuing years, the coastal resort spawned into a semi-barbarous sex-tourism hellscape.

Embarrassed officials have made progress in gentrifying the region with family tourism projects but a ravenous nightlife industry and corrupt police have hampered their efforts, with undesirables from all nations still attracted to the seedy city.

Thailand saw a surge of neon-lit cannabis dispensaries after the substance was decriminalised in June 2022 during former army general Prayut Chan-o-cha's leadership, with impoverished farmers hoping it would become a new cash crop.

However, government officials are now furiously backpedalling amid an explosion in mental health complaints and gaudy shops that have attracted an even lower class of holidaymakers than the country's infamous sex tourists - stoners.

Officials will now outlaw recreational cannabis, blaming poorly regulated use for allegedly fuelling drug abuse.