CHIANG RAI -The Chiang Rai provincial investigation team and Chiang Khong police recently conducted a stakeout and arrested a drug gang smuggling 6 million meth pills across the Chiang Khong border. The group planned to move the drugs to other regions.
On September 13, officers from the Region 5 anti-narcotics unit, along with Chiang Rai’s criminal investigation police and related agencies, arrested three suspects found with six million pills of methamphetamine. Police questioned the suspects and processed them accordingly.
Authorities had learned that a drug network based in Chiang Mai was using vehicles to transport drugs across the Thai-Laos border near the Mekong River in Chiang Khong and Wiang Kaen districts of Chiang Rai.
The police tracked a white Toyota pickup registered in Chiang Mai, matching earlier reports, as it travelled on the designated road.
The target pickup drove along Route 1020 before stopping near Somdejphra Yupparat Chiang Khong Hospital in Wiang subdistrict.
There, it parked close to a dark grey Toyota sedan also registered in Chiang Mai, with two men waiting inside. Police who were already positioned nearby quickly moved in and detained everyone at the scene.
The pickup’s driver, named Ekkalak, 36, is from Muang Yai in Wiang Kaen district. The two men in the sedan were later identified as Jirayut, 48, from Mae Tho in Mae La Noi district, Mae Hong Son province, and Chalit, 33, from Bo Kaeo in Samoeng district, Chiang Mai province.
Officers searched the bed of the pickup and found 24 fertilizer sacks, each covered by blue-grey tarpaulin. Inside these sacks were packages, each estimated to hold about 250,000 methamphetamine pills, totalling 6 million methamphetamine pills. All three men were taken into custody.
Early findings indicate that this gang arranged to collect the narcotics at the Chiang Khong border. Ekkalak drove the pickup loaded with drugs to meet his associates in the sedan.
Their plan included using the sedan to scout the road ahead as they moved the drugs to Chiang Mai, where they would wait before distributing them further. Police escorted the suspects and the seized drugs to investigators to continue the case and trace the group’s wider network.
Related News:
Police Discover Abandoned Van With Superpower 90 Explosives Inside
