Five suspects believed to have links to notorious drug lord Lt Col Yi Se have been arrested and 200,000 methamphetamine pills seized, as part of a new crackdown against a major drug gang operating in the eastern provinces.
The confiscated drugs have a street value of about 7.5 million baht, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) said Thursday at a news conference to announce the arrests.
The suspects were named as Chanthayaphon Khunnaen, 53, from Chon Buri; Phisit Khongphao, 44, from Chachoengsao; Khanchai Maomisi, 34, from Rayong; Thotsaphon Ngam-osa, 37 from Rayong; and Sarawuth Tiyawat, 32 from Khon Kaen.
Aside from the drugs, NSB officers also confiscated a pickup truck, two cars and six mobile phones from the gang during the arrests on Wednesday along the Bangkok-Chon Buri road in Chachoengsao province.
Police received a tip-off the suspects were smuggling drugs into Thailand across the northern borders to distribute in eastern provinces and were part of the drug-trafficking network controlled by Lt Col Yi Se, NSB chief Pol Lt Gen Rewach Klinkesorn, said.
A police officer posed as a drug buyer prior to the arrests to contact the gang for the purchase of drugs worth 7.5 million baht.
Col Yi Se is a former aide of the late drug warlord Khun Sa, the ex-leader of the defunct Mong Tai Army rebel group in Myanmar.
He is now believed to have links with the Wa ethnic group, thought to be major drug producers.
The gang arrested on Wednesday stored the narcotics in several eastern provinces before distributing them to customers mostly in Chon Buri and Rayong provinces, the NSB chief said.
Led by Ms Chanthayaphon, also known as Je Pom, the gang was also found to have distributed drugs in several southern provinces, and used boats to smuggle the narcotics, Pol Lt Gen Rewach said.
They were charged with drug possession with intent to sell.