CHIANG RAI – Police in Chiang Saen have seized 4.8 million meth pills after acting on intelligence, setting up a blockade across the Golden Triangle area and pursuing a pickup truck suspected of carrying drugs.
The target vehicle’s tires failed during the chase, and the driver, a tall, thin man, fled to the Mekong River and jumped into the water, disappearing in the darkness. Officers seized a major haul of yaba, 20 sacks in total, estimated at nearly five million pills.
Pol Col Anupan Kantharat, superintendent of Chiang Saen Police Station, led the operation with Pol Lt Col Kittiphum Kanjina, deputy superintendent for investigations, Pol Lt Col Anat Kawicha, deputy superintendent for operations, Pol Lt Col Phonawat Chobphon, inspector, and Pol Lt Col Krittiyot Santa, investigation inspector.
Pol Col Anupan told reporters they worked with the Chiang Saen district administration, Ban Saeo Police Station, soldiers from Task Force Thap Chao Tak under Pha Muang Force, Chiang Saen Marine Police, Tourist Police, Border Patrol Police Company 327, and the Royal Thai Navy, Norkor Sor, Chiang Rai sector. The team seized about 4,800,000 methamphetamine pills and a grey Nissan pickup registered in Chiang Rai.
The action followed a tip received on the night of 23 Oct that a shipment of yaba would be moved from Myanmar into Chiang Saen, near the Mekong and Ruak rivers in the Golden Triangle. Units were deployed from the Ruak River bank near Ban Wang Lao, Moo 4, Wiang subdistrict, to the Mekong bank at Ban Sop Ruak, Moo 1, Wiang subdistrict.
Officers then spotted a grey Nissan pickup without number plates, its cargo bed covered with black plastic and clearly loaded, leaving a hotel and heading towards the Golden Triangle. One team tailed the vehicle while another set up a checkpoint in front of the Golden Triangle public service point at Ban Sop Ruak.
The driver accelerated through the checkpoint. Shortly after, a tyre blew out and the pickup pulled into the car park at Si Phaendin Market on the Mekong riverbank. The driver ran to the river and jumped in, vanishing into the night.
A search of the pickup found 13 fertilizer-style sacks in the cargo bed and another 7 crammed into the cab, leaving only enough space to drive. Nineteen sacks each contained 250,000 pills, with the final sack holding 50,000. The total came to 4,800,000 methamphetamine pills.
The seized drugs and vehicle were handed to investigators at Chiang Saen Police Station for legal proceedings.
Chiang Rai Border Security
Chiang Rai province, the gateway to the Golden Triangle, remains on the front line of Thailand’s stepped-up anti-narcotics campaign. Despite large, high-profile seizures by security forces this year, the flow of illicit drugs, mainly methamphetamine, keeps coming across the porous border from Myanmar’s volatile Shan State.
The Pha Muang Task Force and Border Patrol Police Company 327 have been key units, moving from one major interception to the next. Authorities report that transnational networks are changing routes, using scouts, and carrying heavier weapons to shield shipments.
The sheer scale of the trade, part of a wider regional surge that saw more than a billion meth pills seized nationwide in the past year, points to a deeper problem tied to unchecked production inside Myanmar.
The government has pledged to wipe out the threat. On the ground, however, officers face a grinding fight, and each major bust offers only brief relief.
Border units in Chiang Rai continue with tighter surveillance and intelligence-led operations, using sensors, drones, and cross-agency tips. Even so, long-term stability across the North depends on stopping the supply at its source. For now, the vigilance of border patrols is the barrier between mass shipments and the streets of Thailand.
