CHIANG RAI – Authorities have arrested a 42-year-old man driving a cold storage truck with a hidden compartment with 8 million meth pills inside at a checkpoint at Mae Tho on Highway 118, just before the mountain pass leading to Chiang Mai.
On August 25, 2025, Police Major General Manop Senakul, head of Chiang Rai Provincial Police, and Police Colonel Supap Khueankaeo, chief of Mae Chai Dai Police Station, received a tip about a drug gang shipping drugs from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai.
Officers heightened their monitoring and joined forces with local narcotics units for a crackdown, targeting the checkpoint at Mae Tho, Jae Di Mai, along Highway 118. This road connects Chiang Rai with Chiang Mai, passing through Doi Nang Kaew.
A team spotted a white six-wheel Hino truck from Suphan Buri headed for Chiang Mai. They pulled over the vehicle and found a man driving alone, later identified as Mr. Jakkrapong, 42, from Ron Phibun, Nakhon Sri Thammarat.
The man acted nervously, and their inspection outside the truck found no drugs. Still, police noticed a strange odour from the front of the cargo section. Inside, they uncovered over 20 large woven sacks, each packed with 300,000 meth pills, adding up to about 6 million tablets.
Officers arrested Mr. Jakkrapong and took him, along with the seized drugs, to Mae Chai Dai Police Station for further questioning.
This method of hiding drugs was almost identical to a case three days earlier in Lampang, when police stopped a similar cold storage truck and arrested two suspects from Prachuap Khiri Khan and Surat Thani. They found 8 million meth tablets in a hidden compartment at the back of that truck. Police are now working to find out if the two cases are connected.
Meth Pills Hidden in Cabbage Shipment
Meanwhile, Police officers from Region 5, Wiang Pa Pao station, and Border Patrol Police Division 3 expanded an investigation after border patrol officers recently seized 3.2 million meth pills from another group on July 11, 2024. Police discovered the trafficking ring belonged to the Muser Maepunluang group, run by Weera Muenjada, a key drug suspect who fled to Shan State in Myanmar.
The group also included Colonel Jaka, another major dealer, who continued smuggling drugs into northern Thailand through Highway 118 connecting Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. Police then set up more checkpoints to intercept drug shipments.
Just before midnight on August 24, police received a report about a white Isuzu pickup with Chiang Mai plates. The truck carried a load of mostly Chinese cabbage and round eggplants, with a separate white Isuzu MU-X SUV from Bangkok acting as the lead vehicle.
Both travelled along Highway 118, passing through the Wiang Pa Pao district. Officers ordered police stations in the area to stop and inspect the vehicles.
Police caught the pickup at a fuel station in Wiang subdistrict, where it was driven by a 47-year-old man named Yai from San Sali, Wiang Pa Pao. The white SUV was stopped near the Pang Ngiu police booth as it passed by.
Inside, police found 70-year-old Sa-ard from Wiang subdistrict at the wheel, with 38-year-old Thanathida from Wiang Pa Pao as a passenger.
Everyone, along with both vehicles, was taken to the Wiang Pa Pao station for a thorough search. Officers found 40 large sacks under the vegetables. Thirty-five sacks each held 100,000 meth pills, which totalled 3.5 million tablets.
The remaining five sacks contained 12 kilograms of ice each, totalling 60 kilograms. Police arrested all three people. Both vehicles and the drugs were seized as evidence as the case proceeded.
Recently, authorities have searched three more locations in the Wiang Pa Pao district, seizing and freezing 49 more assets worth a combined 27.2 million baht. Police Lieutenant General Phanurat Lakboon, secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board, plans to hold a media briefing at the Region 5 ONCB office on 26 August.
