CHIANG RAI – Narcotics suppression police in Chiang Rai joined forces with Region 5 police and ONCB officers to track a major drug shipment, then lay in wait along the Thoeng–Chun highway. The road links the Thoeng district in Chiang Rai with the Chun district in Phayao.
Officers arrested a local man from Thoeng who was driving a pickup truck with a steel cage, hired by a Myanmar-based financier to transport a large load of crystal meth and methamphetamine pills. In total, police seized 20 sacks of drugs that were about to be passed on to a wider network.
His partner managed to flee into the darkness. Officers also found that they were in the middle of a group voice call on the LINE app.
The operation involved officers from the Narcotics Suppression Police, the Special Operation Unit of the Chiang Rai Provincial Investigation Division, ONCB officers from Region 5, and the artificial intelligence (AI) supported drug transport interception unit of the Region 5 Narcotics Operation Centre, and investigators from Provincial Police Region 5 also joined the operation to follow the chain of command’s policy to clamp down on drug trafficking across the northern border.
Later, Pol Lt Col Phichitphong Thananchai, Chiang Rai Provincial Investigation Division, led his narcotics team after receiving a tip-off from an informant. The source reported that a drug handover would take place along the Thoeng–Chun bypass in Moo 12, Wiang subdistrict, Thoeng district, Chiang Rai, from around 6 pm on 27 November onwards.
After checking and analysing the information, officers found that this stretch of road is quite isolated. From several previous major drug cases in the northern region, it had already emerged as a regular drop-off and pick-up route. Since the informant was considered reliable, the command team ordered a joint operation to monitor and intercept any suspected drug convoys in the area.
At about 6 pm on the same day (November 27), police and ONCB officers, who had already been hiding along the road, noticed three motorbikes repeatedly circling the target area. Pol Lt Col Phichitphong Thananchai then ordered all teams to tighten surveillance at likely parking spots where vehicles might stop to load or unload drugs.
At around 7.40 pm, officers spotted a pickup truck with a steel cage and a cover sheet driving along the Thoeng–Chun bypass in Moo 12, Wiang subdistrict, Thoeng district. The vehicle pulled over onto an earthen clearing beside the road and turned off its lights. Two men got out, climbed onto the back of the truck, and began lifting sacks down in a way that raised suspicion.
Police moved in at once to inspect the vehicle. As soon as the two men realised they were officers, they tried to run away. One managed to escape into the darkness, but officers caught the other after a short chase. The arrested man was identified as Mr Sakda, 41, a resident of Wiang subdistrict, Thoeng district, Chiang Rai.
In the initial questioning, Sakda admitted that he and a man known as Narong, or Ton, had been hired to drive the truck and deliver the drugs to customers as instructed by a financier.
Officers then searched his person and the green Mazda pickup truck with Chiang Rai registration plates. In the back of the truck, they found the drugs, packed in black plastic bags and stuffed inside 20 large sacks.
The haul consisted of type 1 narcotics, crystal meth, and methamphetamine pills. There were 11 sacks of crystal meth, containing 320 smaller bags, each weighing about 1 kilogram, a total of about 320 kilograms. The remaining 9 sacks held around 1,898,000 methamphetamine tablets. Police also seized a mobile phone that was still connected to a LINE group conference call at the time of arrest.
Officers took Sakda into custody, along with all seized items, for detailed questioning and case expansion. Further action will focus on tracking down his partner and the wider trafficking network.
