CHIANG RAI — Police have seized 1.4 million methamphetamine pills with an estimated street value of 280 million baht in a sting operation in Mae Sai district.
A drug gang were to deliver the speed pills to undercover police posing as buyers at a petrol station on Saturday but they may have been aware of the sting and decided to discard a large bag packed with the drugs and fled at the last minute.
However, police have been able to identify the suspects and are now trying to locate them, Pol Lt Gen Thanitsak Theerasawat, commander of the Provincial Police Region 8, told a news conference.
The confiscated drugs belonged to a Myanmar drug gang led by Lt Col Yi Se, who is wanted in Thailand and has a 5-million-baht reward on his head. The contraband was destined for Phitsanulok, and if it had reached there its value on the streets would have been up to 280 million baht.
Pol Lt Gen Thanitsak said police had conducted surveillance and gathered intelligence in the border district of Mae Sai for two months before being able to contact the gang members.