CHIANG MAI – Mae Ai police officers patrolling the Mae Sao narcotics checkpoint area found a suspicious Toyota pickup stuck by the roadside at dusk. Three unidentified men, believed to be hill tribe residents, were unloading items, then fled on motorcycles into the dark.
A search turned up 15 rucksacks packed with methamphetamine pills, about 3,000,000 in total.
The team from Mae Ai Police Station, acting under regional anti-drug operations, reached a public road near Ban Huai Muang, Moo 8, Mae Na Wang subdistrict, at around 7 pm on 27 September.
They found a white Toyota pickup, registration ผต 5072 Chiang Rai, appearing bogged down in mud. One modified rucksack sat by the driver’s side. Three more were in the truck bed, with a further 11 hidden nearby.
Officers seized the vehicle and the 15 bags, then transferred the evidence to investigators at Mae Ai Police Station for legal proceedings.
Suspects face allegations of jointly possessing and distributing a Category 1 narcotic, methamphetamine, for commercial purposes, causing widespread harm to the public and affecting state security, without permission.
In September 2025, security forces in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai stepped up their fight against drug trafficking. The two provinces sit on key routes from the Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet. A string of major seizures showed the reach of the trade and the rising risks for officers on the ground.
On 9 September, soldiers from the Pha Muang Task Force clashed with suspected smugglers near Ban Pha Mee in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai. The suspects fled into steep border terrain. Troops later found more than 2 million methamphetamine pills packed in modified sacks.
The operation reflected the unit’s tougher patrols and pushed their fiscal year haul to a street value of over 36 billion baht.
Four days later, on 13 September, Chiang Rai Provincial Police and anti-narcotics teams broke up a cross-border ring. The group moved drugs from Chiang Mai towards Laos through Chiang Khong.
Officers arrested three suspects, a 36-year-old man from Wiang Kaen and two others from Mae Hong Son and Samoeng. They seized 6 million meth pills hidden in vehicles at a PTT petrol station.
The case exposed networks using Mekong River routes to slip past checkpoints.
On 15 September, Provincial Police Region 5 ran a multi-province sting across Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Lamphun. Four alleged ringleaders were arrested. Officers recovered almost 10 million meth pills and 100 kilograms of crystal meth.
The drugs were found in hotel rooms and in vehicles tracked from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong. The haul, worth hundreds of millions of baht, cut into supply lines likely bound for criminal markets in Bangkok.
Another clash on 11 September unfolded in Doi Mae Salong, Chiang Rai. Pha Muang troops intercepted a fleeing caravan and found 4.3 million meth tablets left behind in the chaos. Traffickers were shifting tactics, moving through Laos or pushing deeper into Chiang Mai’s mountains as border checks tightened.
These actions formed part of the national drive, No Drugs, No Dealers: Toward Zero Drugs Thailand, launched earlier in the year. At least two major rings were dismantled. Police, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, and military units worked more closely than before.
More than 22 million meth pills were seized across the province in September alone. That figure far outpaced earlier months and marked a 172 percent jump in pill seizures compared to 2023. The work carried a heavy price, with armed clashes leaving smugglers dead and officers on constant alert.
Yet production in Myanmar’s Shan State kept feeding record volumes, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Porous borders and isolated ethnic minority villages in northern Thailand often became transit points without intent.
Narcotics Suppression Police have called for stronger intelligence sharing and steady community outreach. They urged action on root causes, including poverty and corruption, which drive violence and drain the region’s economy.
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