CHIANG RAI – On Sunday, soldiers from the Pha Meuang Task Force arrested a man from Myanmar and seized 300,000 meth pills and a Honda Wave motorcycle near Ban Pang Mahan, Village 8, in Chiang Rai’s Mae Fah Luang District.
Maj. Gen. Kidakorn Chantra, commander of the Pha Muang Task Force and head of its anti-narcotics centre, told reporters that while on patrol, the soldiers spotted a group of suspicious people walking along a mountain path, each carrying a modified sack.
Officers approached and identified themselves to search, but the group dropped their bags and ran off into the forest. The team called for backup, sending in two more units to secure the area.
At approximately 7:30 a.m., the patrol team searched the site and apprehended one suspect from Myanmar. They seized a blue Honda Wave motorcycle and also found two backpacks left behind. Inside, they found meth pills (yaba): one bag held 200,000 pills, and the other had 100,000, making a total of 300,000 pills.
Maj. Gen. Kidakorn said he ordered Colonel Kitti Najai, deputy commander of the Task Force, to oversee a field inspection with police and narcotics suppression officials. All seized drugs and evidence were transferred to Mae Fah Luang Police Station for legal action.
Maj. Gen. Kidakorn told reporters that from October 1, 2024, until now, anti-drug operations in the area have disrupted trafficking 375 times.
Police have arrested 400 suspects and seized 162,205,472 meth pills, 145.8 kilograms of heroin, 8,192 kilograms of crystal meth (ice), 93.5 kilograms of opium, and 696 kilograms of ketamine.
There have been 50 confrontations with traffickers, resulting in 33 members of these groups killed. If these seized drugs had reached Bangkok, their street value would have topped 33.3 billion baht (33,369,314,800 baht), causing huge economic losses.
Related News:
Soldiers Shoot and Kill 5 Drug Runners During a Firefight in Chiang Mai
