B30m in marijuana seized in Northeast

B30m in marijuana seized in Northeast

A total of 1,280kg in compressed marijuana, worth about 25.6 million baht, is displayed at the 244th Border Patrol Police Company in Bung Kan following a joint operation by police and soldiers on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of the 244th Border Patrol Police Company)
A total of 1,280kg in compressed marijuana, worth about 25.6 million baht, is displayed at the 244th Border Patrol Police Company in Bung Kan following a joint operation by police and soldiers on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of the 244th Border Patrol Police Company)

Some 1,300 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana worth almost 30 million baht were seized in separate raids in Bung Kan and Chaiyaphum provinces on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Chaiyaphum, 107kg of compressed marijuana were seized in Muang district early Wednesday.

The drugs were found left under a makeshift shelter near Huay Kudchuek stream in tambon Kudtum, said Pol Col Chettha Choeychum, chief of Lat Yai police station, who was reported around 2.30am on Wednesday.

The drugs, worth about 1.6 million baht, might have been left by a drug-smuggling gang after seeing police checkpoints along the route, said Pol Col Chettha. He believed the gang might have planned to deliver the drugs during the upcoming Songkran holidays.

Police inspect 107kg of compressed marijuana seized from a makeshift shelter in Chaiyaphum early Wednesday. (Photo by Makkawan Wannakul)

In Bung Kan, 41 fertiliser sacks containing 1,280kg of ganja with a face value of about 25.6 million baht were confiscated on Tuesday in the province's biggest marijuana haul.

The seizure followed a tip to the 244th Border Patrol Company that a drug smuggling gang would deliver a large quantity of marijuana in tambon Horkham in Muang district of the northeastern province.

The drug runners, however, changed the delivery venue to Pak Khat district adjacent to Nong Khai's Rattana Wapi district.

A combined team of border patrol and marine police and soldiers spotted three fishing boats travelling from Laos along the Mekong River around 5am on Tuesday.

About 20 men on board was seen carrying the sacks to a pickup truck on the riverbank, with about 10 men waiting near the vehicle. The officers emerged and the gang fired more than 20 shots into the sky before fleeing in two of the three fishing vessels, said police.

A total of 18 fertiliser sacks containing bars of compressed marijuana were found in the back of the pickup truck, 17 more sacks were scattered along the river bank and the remaining six sacks were in the fishing vessel.

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