BANGKOK, Aug 30: Five foreigners suspected of trafficking 40 kilograms heroin out of Thailand were arrested in Bangkok early Saturday in an operation involving US agents, Thai police said.

Two Afghans, two Pakistanis and an American were nabbed at two luxury downtown hotels in the Thai capital and will be extradited to face trial in the United States, where warrants for their arrest were processed through Interpol.

They were among a total of 17 arrested people linked to a major drug ring suspected of smuggling the drugs into the United States in the last few years, Lieutenant Colonel Chakkrit Iamjeangphan of crime suppression police told AFP.

“US authorities arrested 12 members of this ring simultaneously in the United States. We arrested five of them in Thailand,” Chakkrit said.

Thai police cooperated with US Drug Enforcement Administration agents to raid two luxury hotels in downtown Bangkok, capturing the five suspects, he added.

The five, who had opened a jewellery trading firm as a front for their operations here, were still undergoing interrogation.

Thailand is seen as a key transit country for the trade in heroin.