CHIANG RAI – On Saturday, Soldiers from Task Force 35, working with Pha Muang Task Force, seized 600,000 methamphetamine pills along the Thai-Myanmar border after receiving reports of a drug run.
A motorbike racing down the mountain towards Mae Chan tried to dodge a checkpoint. Officers followed and found the bike abandoned with three fertiliser sacks packed with methamphetamine tablets, totalling 600,000 pills. The rider escaped into the forest.
On the morning of 10 January, troops from several units under Task Force 35 and Pha Muang Force set up a checkpoint on a road near Ban Pa Miang (Moo 9), Pa Tueng sub-district, Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai.
The move followed intelligence that traffickers planned to move yaba from the border area around Mae Fa Luang and Mae Chan districts down to the plains, heading towards Phahonyothin Road.
Officers later spotted a single motorcycle, a Honda Wave with no registration plate, coming down from the hills. The rider had bulky fertiliser sacks strapped to the front and rear. As the bike neared the checkpoint, the rider appeared startled, turned sharply, and sped back the way they came.
Soldiers gave chase and soon found the motorcycle and the sacks dumped by the roadside. The rider had already run into the nearby woods. A search of the three sacks found about 200,000 yaba tablets in each, making a total of 600,000 tablets. The drugs were seized as evidence, and officials said they will continue inquiries to track down those involved.
The Pha Muang Task Force is a specialist unit within the Royal Thai Army. It plays a central part in stopping drug smuggling along Thailand’s northern border, with a strong focus on Chiang Rai province.
Chiang Rai sits in the Golden Triangle and acts as a key entry point for narcotics coming from Myanmar’s Shan State. Ongoing unrest there supports large-scale production of methamphetamine (ya ba tablets and crystal meth, often called “ice”), as well as heroin, opium, and ketamine.
To counter this threat, the task force runs intelligence-led operations and keeps up a steady presence on the ground. Teams carry out patrols, set ambushes, and run checkpoints across hard-to-reach border areas. Hotspots include Mae Sai, Mae Fa Luang, and Chiang Saen, where steep terrain and remote routes give smugglers room to move.
These missions often end in armed clashes, as trafficking groups are frequently well-armed and try to slip through porous crossing points. In 2025, the unit increased its activity as trafficking volumes rose alongside instability in Myanmar, leading to hundreds of interceptions and major disruptions.
The figures show the scale of the work. Between October 2024 and September 2025, the Pha Muang Task Force carried out 328 operations. These led to many arrests and seizures valued at about 36 billion baht.
The haul included around 175 million methamphetamine tablets and 9 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine, plus large amounts of heroin, opium, and ketamine.
Several high-profile cases in Chiang Rai during 2025 drew attention:
- In September, a firefight in Mae Sai ended with officers seizing more than 4 million meth tablets.
- In November, a string of raids produced multi-million tablet seizures, including 7.2 million near Doi Pha Mee, along with other large hauls linked to cross-border supply lines.
Operations continued into early 2026. On 2 January, another seizure in Mae Sai recovered 2.2 million meth tablets, showing sustained pressure on trafficking networks.
Each seizure stops huge volumes of drugs from reaching Thai cities and overseas markets. It also helps reduce harm in communities, from addiction to the crime that often follows. Even with these results, the task force faces shifting smuggling methods and the wider impact of regional unrest. Their day-to-day work remains a key part of Thailand’s fight against illegal drugs.
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