Chiang Rai Drug Suppression Officers Shoot Akha Tribesman, Drugs Siezed

Thai para-military officer holding sack containing  methamphetamine pills in April – CRT

CHIANG RAI – Drug Suppression officers have reported that a suspected drug runner has been killed and 200,000 methamphetamine pills, aka yaba has been seized in a gunfight between police and two drug couriers in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district on Wednesday morning.

Pol Maj Gen Wanchai Suwansirikhet, the Chiang Rai police chief, said Mae Sai district drug suppression police on patrol spotted two men carrying a bag near the bridge of Ban San Kled Thong in tambon Pong Ngam about 6kms from the border with Myanmar.

When the suspects were ordered to stop by the police officials, the two men suddenly began to flee the patrolling officers with one of  them opening fire on the officers with a .38 revolver pistol. The officers the immediately returned fire killing the suspect while the other man dropped the bag containing  200,000 methamphetamine pillsand fled. The dead man was later identified as Ah Pha, aged about 40, an Akha tribesman.