– Deputy Interior Minister Pholpeer Suwanchawi and the Department of Provincial Administration’s DOPA S.W.A.T. unit raided OK Bar on Khao San Road at about 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, 10 October.
– Officers reported 30 patrons under 20, the youngest 15, and 31 positive urine drug screens, including four people under 20 and two DJs. A firearm, an imitation firearm, scattered drugs and nitrous oxide balloons were also found.
– Phone records allegedly showed monthly payments of more than 177,000 baht listed as care for “every agency.” The claim is under investigation.
– Metropolitan Police transferred the five senior officers of nearby Chanasongkram Police Station pending an inquiry. Officials will seek a five-year closure of the bar.
Bangkok authorities raided an unlicensed bar on Khao San Road early on Saturday and reported that 31 people, including four under 20, tested positive for drugs, while records in a phone allegedly logged monthly payments of more than 177,000 baht to multiple suspicious agencies triggering a further investigation.
Deputy Interior Minister Pholpeer Suwanchawi led the Department of Provincial Administration special operations unit, DOPA S.W.A.T., in Operation “Singh Pha Det Suek” against OK Bar in the Talat Yot subdistrict of the Phra Nakhon district, at about 3:30 a.m. Complaints had said the venue was open without a licence, selling alcohol past legal hours and letting people under 20 inside. The bar sits less than 100 metres from Chanasongkram Police Station.
A check of the licensing database showed OK Bar had no entertainment-venue licence. Officials said the combination of alcohol sales, music, stage performances and dancing met the legal definition of a place that needs one. Phra Nakhon District Office had even previously ordered the venue to suspend operations on the 4th of August 2026 over public health, safety and fire hazards. It was still open.
Some Thai accounts said more than 200 were drinking and dancing when officers arrived. On the underage figure the reports agree: 30 people under 20, 20 male and 10 female, one of them 15. There was no ID check at the door. Four to six guards stood outside. Officers said they watched patrons keep leaving the same bathroom, then found plastic straws and white powder on the floor. Drugs were also reported on tables, in bins, and in the toilets. Balloons and equipment for nitrous oxide, sold as laughing gas which is illegal in Thailand, were scattered through the room.
Urine screens came back positive for 31 people. Four of them were under 20. Two DJs were among the positives. Officers seized one firearm with ammunition, one imitation firearm, suspected narcotics and the nitrous gear.
The manager was detained and sent to investigators. Charges listed by officials include operating an entertainment venue without a licence, selling alcohol outside permitted hours, selling alcohol to people under 20, encouraging inappropriate behaviour by children, breaching alcohol promotion rules, food and product violations, importing food for sale without permission, and selling modern medicines without a licence. People who tested positive and the drugs found on the premises are being handled separately under narcotics law. Officials said they would trace suppliers. The Department of Provincial Administration said it would ask the Metropolitan Police Bureau to close the venue for five years under NCPO Order 22/2015.
On a seized phone, investigators found entries described as “care for every agency” totalling more than 177,000 baht a month. Pholpeer and provincial administration officials said the records would be checked to see which agencies, if any, received money and where it came from. The allegation is under investigation.
Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Siam Boonsom ordered an immediate transfer of the five senior officers of Chanasongkram station, the “five tigers,” to the operations centre of Metropolitan Police Division 1. The move clears the way for a fact-finding committee to examine whether local officers neglected the venue or whether subordinates withheld information from the superintendent. Siam said negligence, if found, would bring both criminal and disciplinary action. He also told Divisions 1 through 9 to inspect similar venues. Officers responsible for areas where underage entry, drugs or guns are found can face discipline if neglect is established. The bar has been ordered closed while that process runs.
Khao San has been through this before. In October 2024 FDA and police found nitrous oxide for sale at two venues on the same road, Best Friend and Boozy. The same DOPA S.W.A.T. unit, again under Deputy Interior Minister Pholpeer, raided an unlicensed Huai Khwang club in August 2026 in a nominee and licence sweep that also turned up drug positives, Both sit under the interior ministry’s wider push against unlicensed venues, underage entry and drugs.
Legal entry to an entertainment venue in Thailand is 20. Selling alcohol to anyone under that age, or letting them in, is a separate offence from the drug charges. Nitrous oxide sold for recreation is treated as an unregistered drug under the Drug Act. Operating without a licence and after a district suspension order adds administrative and criminal tracks.