News
Border Patrol Seizes Methamphetamine Shipment After Gun Battle
A border patrol team of army rangers from the Pha Muang task force and drug suppression police spotted four armed smugglers travelling a trail on the Myanmar-Thailand border.
The border patrol team signalled the smugglers to stop but instead, they opened fire on the patrol, igniting a firefight that lasted about five minutes, a police spokesperson told CTN News.
The men then fled into the cover of the jungle. The police spokesperson said that there were no injuries on either side after the firefight.
In search of the surrounding area, security forces discovered; three assault rifles and ammunition, 32 rucksacks containing approximately four million meth pills, 26kg of ketamine, a homemade grenade, three mobile phones and a walkie-talkie, as well as clothing.
Maj Gen Nopparit Thawornwong, commander of the Pha Muang task force, led senior officers from the 3rd Army to inspect the scene after the firefight with the border patrol and the drug smugglers.
On Wednesday, a border patrol team from the Pha Muang task force seized two hundred methamphetamine pills and 1.6 pounds of heroin abandoned by armed drug runners following a firefight also near the Myanmar border, in Chiang Mai’s Mae Ai district.
Since February 1’s military coup in Myanmar, methamphetamine production has been on the rise in the Golden Triangle, an area heavily populated by warlords, militias, gunrunners, and drug traffickers.
Thailand is the main route for Myanmar methamphetamine to the Asia-Pacific region. Last year Thailand seized more than 20 tons of highly addictive crystal methamphetamine, nearly double 2020’s haul.
