Police have arrested four suspects with nearly one million speed pills worth up to 400 million baht at a checkpoint in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong, a prime minister's adviser, said in a press conference.
Pol Gen Priewpan said police manning the checkpoint at Ban Tham Pla in tambon Pong Ngam of Mae Sai district stopped a Nissan pick-up truck at about 3am on Sunday for a search. No illegal items were found in the initial search but the police kept the vehicle and two men in custody as they looked suspicious and the driver did not answer incoming calls on his mobile phone.
Police later stopped another pick-up, a Toyota Vigo, which followed shortly afterwards. In a subsequent search, they found 958,000 methamphetamine pills hidden in a false compartment in the rooftop of the vehicle.
Three men and one woman in the two vehicles were arrested. The men were identified as Somchai sae Hang, 45, Kua Laohang, 26, and Prapan sae Yang, 19. The woman was identified as Bai sae Hang, 44.
Pol Gen Priewpan said the suspects claimed they were hired for one million baht by a drug trafficking network allegedly run by Thamnoon Asavakul to pick up the drugs from Ban Pha Mi in tambon Wiang Phan Kham of Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district and deliver them to a client in Samut Prakan province.
Thamnoon is a drug suspect wanted under a police warrant who has fled to a neighbouring country, he said.