Police arrested three people in Ang Thong province for alleged possession of drugs and gear to make one million highly potent methamphetamine pills worth about 200 million baht for sale in greater Bangkok.
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat Nonghanpitak, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, told the press on Friday that Poonsawat Khiawkhem, 45 and his 44-year-old wife Tranpasakorn Tomsung were arrested while accepting packages containing 80,000 speed pills from Thawit Niampong, 41, in the parking lot at Wat Muang in tambon Hua Taphan of Wiset Chai Chan district, Ang Thong, on Thursday.
They arrived there in two pickup trucks.
At the couple's house in Kanchanaburi, police found 16,000 more speed pills, 716 grammes of crystal methamphetamine, or "ice", equipment for making methamphetamine pills, and an amount of methamphetamine powder.
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat said the couple had enough "product" for the production of 1 million speed pills worth about 200 million baht. He said they were making pills out of normal methamphetamine mixed with crystal meth.
Police allege Mr Poonsawat is a big drug supplier in Bangkok and nearby provinces.
Mr Poonsawat said he had been freed from jail in April 2014 after serving a term for drug trafficking and after unsuccessfully trying his hand at farming cassava had returned to the drug business.
He admitted that he bought speed and mixed it with crystal meth to increase the potency before selling it as pills.