1.36-tonne cannabis bust

1.36-tonne cannabis bust

Police arrested five men when they stopped a convoy of four pickup trucks carrying 1.36 tonnes of cannabis with an estimated market value of 20 million baht in Chumphon province.

Police show the 1.36 tonnes of cannabis and the arrested traffickers at the provincial police headquarters of Chumphon province on Monday. (Photo by Amnart Thongdee)

Pol Maj Gen Kittisan Detsunthornwat, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8, told a press conference on Monday that the convoy had been stopped at seaside Bang Saphan-Chumphon Road in Don Yang sub-district of Pathiu district on Saturday.

The vehicles were registered in Bangkok. There were two trucks carrying the cannabis slabs and the other two were providing escort, at the front and rear of the convoy.

The five were identified as driver Cherdchai Khongfu, 37, from Nakhon Pathom province, driver Mos Chanchine, 29, of Sukhothai, passenger Chalard Lekchang, 27, of Sukhothai, driver Jakkrit Paetraksa, 41, of Phetchaburi, and driver Suchart Srikaeo, 39, of Surin.

The arrest resulted from information from Somchai Ketsri, 34, of Phichit, who had been arrested with 614 kilogrammes of cannabis bars on Phetchakasem Highway in Pathiu last November. All the traffickers had transported cannabis from Laos to southern Thailand, Pol Maj Gen Kittisan said.

The gang of five arrested on Saturday had bought cannabis in Ratana Wapi district of Nong Khai province on Jan 28 and 30 and left the northeastern province for the South on Jan 30.

The seized cannabis had a market price of about 20 million baht as it was retailed at 15,000 baht per kilogramme, Pol Maj Gen Kittisan said.

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