Police in Phan District of Chiang Rai have arrested two men and seized 2 million methamphetamine pills, and approximately 2Kg of crystal methamphetamine.
Officers from the Phan Police Station in Chiang Rai Province told CTN News two male suspects were stopped at the Pu Kaeng checkpoint on Phahon Yothin Road in Phan District in a Isuzu pickup truck with Nakhon Si Thammarat license plates driving towards Phayao Province.
The driver identified as Mr. Net, aged 24, was from Phatthalung Province, and his passenger, Mr. Somsak, aged 25, was from Nakhon Si Thammarat Province.
An inspection of the back of the pickup truck revealed 10 sacks covered with a rough red blanket on top. When the officers removed the blankets and opened the bags, they found approximately 200,000 methamphetamine pills per bag, totaling 2 million methamphetamine pills, and approximately 2 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in plastic bags.
The suspects were taken to the Phan Police Station where an initial investigations revealed that they were hired by a drug trafficking gang to transport all the drugs from the Chiang Rai border to the South in exchange for 200,000 baht per person.
Phan Police said they have expanded the investigation with narcotics suppression police to locate the drug gang that hired the two men to transport the drugs to the south.
Heroin Seized in Mae Sai Chiang Rai
On Wednesday soldiers from the Pha Muang Task Force have seized over 120kg of heroin from a group of drug runners trying to cross into Mae Sai Chiang Rai in the middle of the night.
Major Gen. Kittakorn Chanthra, Commander of the Pha Muang Task Force told reporters that a patrol was sent to monitor the border area along the Ruak River, on the Thai-Myanmar border, in the Koh Chang sub-district, Mae Sai District of Chiang Rai.
A around 1:30 a.m.when the troops were inspecting the area of Sri Pa Daeng Village, Village 9, Koh Chang Subdistrict, they came upon a group of approximately 5-10 men carrying sacks of straw that had been modified into backpacks wrapped in black plastic bags entering the Thai side of the natural border.
The soldier order the group of men to stop, but they opened fire on the soldiers trying to escape. The Pha Muang Force returned fire resulting in a firefight that lasted for approximately 5 minutes. All the Pha Muang Task Force soldiers were uninjured.
At sunrise soldiers discovered six rainbow-colored sacks were found, containing heroin bars stamped with the lion stepping on a globe. There were 60 bars per sack, for a total of approximately 360 bars of heroin, weighing approximately 126 kilograms.
Major Gen. Kittakorn said that the drugs belonged to a minority network in a neighboring country, and it is believed that they were to be transported through Thailand to a third country.