CHIANG RAI — Two tribal teenagers hired to smuggle illicit drugs were arrested and 400,000 speed pills seized from their travelling bags on a Bangkok-bound tour bus, which was stopped for a search in Chiang Rai late Thursday night.
Local police stopped a Chiang Rai-Bangkok interprovincial passenger bus at a road checkpoint in tambon Dong Mada in Mae Lao district of this northern province at around 9.30pm on Thursday following information that a trafficker would smuggle a large quantity of drugs into Bangkok via a passenger bus.
The officers searched the vehicle and saw two male teenagers, aged 15, acting suspiciously. They then checked their two bags in the luggage compartment of the bus and found many packages of drugs inside them, each containing 200,000 speed pills or 400,000 pills in total.
The duo, who were tribal teenagers, confessed they had picked up the drugs from a friend at a border area in Mae Sai district. The drugs would be sent to Ayutthaya, where someone would later come to smuggle them into Bangkok. If the drugs were sucessfully delivered, they would receive 300,000 baht for the job, said the suspects.
They admitted they had previously been hired to smuggle illicit drugs before being arrested.