Chiang Rai News
Chiang Rai Authorities Find Over a Ton of Methamphetamine Pills in an Abandoned Pickup Truck
CHIANG RAI – Pol Gen Thanitsak Theerasawat, special adviser to the Royal Thai Police Office, told a media briefing on Tuesday that police and soldiers found an abandoned pickup truck loaded with 1.4 tonnes of methamphetamine pills found in Wiang Chai district of Chiang Rai.
A total of 57 sacks, containing 11,996,000 speed pills and weighing 1,425kg, were found in the back of the Mazda pickup abandoned on the side of the Chiang Rai-Wiang Chai Road, near the Myanmar border.
Pol Gen Thanitsak said drug smugglers had recently begun using secondary roads in northern areas to avoid police checkpoints on main roads. The pickup may have been heading for Phayao.
The 57 sacks containing 1.4 tonnes of speed pills are put on display during a media briefing in Chiang Rai on Tuesday. – Photo Chinapat Chaiyamol
The 57 packs of speed pills were all stamped with “Y1’’ or “999’’ and believed to belong to a Wa drug trafficking gang, Pol Gen Thanitsak said.
Pol Lt Gen Poonsap Prasertsak, commander of Provincial Police Region 5, told the Bangkok Post that the smuggled cargo was believed to be linked to another seizure of 9.4 million speed pills in Wiang Kaen district on April 2.
Large amounts of illicit drugs had been seized since six drug smugglers were shot dead during a clash with a patrol last December.
The ambush of the Hmong leader was linked to recent seizures of methamphetamine, Maj Gen Supachok said.
