Two men have been arrested and 7kg of heroin that was to be sent to Australia seized in Udon Thani, and almost 200kg of compressed marijuana found hidden in a forest in Nakhon Phanom, in separate police operations.
Boulapha Simoukda, 47, a Lao national, and Khajornmart Amarttayakul, 54, of Chiang Mai, were presented at a media briefing at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau headquarters on Tuesday.
Police also displayed two parcels of heroin, weighing 7kg, 12,891 baht cash intended for parcel fees, three mobile phones, and a car with a Lao licence plate.
The duo were arrested in the car park at Big C superstore’s Nadi branch on the Udon Thani-Nong Bua Lamphu Road in Muang district of Uthon Thani on June 11, Pol Lt Gen Rewat Klinkesorn, the NSB commissioner, said.
The arrest followed information that a Lao gang would smuggle heroin into the country via the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge in Nakhon Phanom, said Pol Lt Gen Rewat.
Police were sent to patrol several routes the smugglers might take. They followed a car with a Lao licence plate heading to Khon Kaen and then along the Mittraparb Highway towards Udon Thani.
The vehicle stopped at the UPS courier agency branch in Udon Thani’s Muang district and the two suspects got out of the vehicle with a parcel. They entered the office with the parcel and hurriedly left a short time later.
Their actions were viewed with suspicion. Police divided into two teams. One team checked the parcel at the UPS branch and found it contained kitchenware stuffed with 3.5kg of heroin. The parcel was destined for Australia, said Pol Lt Gen Rewat.
The other police team followed the suspects’ car and later arrested them in the car park in Udon Thani with another 3.5kg of heroin.
During interrogation the suspects denied drug charges. They claimed they had been hired to send the parcels, but they did not know they contained heroin.
The pair were charged with having illicit drugs in their possession with intent to sell.
In Nakhon Phanom, 190kg of compressed marijuana worth about five million baht was found hidden in a forest near Songkram River, a tributary of Mekong River, in Tha Uthen district.
A total of 190 bars of compressed marijuana, each weighing 1kg and wrapped in foil, were contained in fertiliser sacks left in the forest, police said during a media briefing on Tuesday at Tha Uthen district police station.
It was believed that smugglers used a long-tailed boat to bring the marijuana from Laos to Nakhon Phanom via the Songkram River, a tributary of the Mekong River. The drugs were hidden in the forest awaiting collection and delivery.
Last week, some 500kg of compressed marijuana had been seized in Nakhon Phanom.