Police have arrested suspected drug traffickers in several cases and seized 3.6 kilogrammes of heroin, a large number of methamphetamine and assets believed to have been acquired using drug money in the northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
Chiang Rai police chief Pol Maj Gen Wanchai Suwansirikhet said police arrested Duangrudee Choen-aksorn, 30, and Chukiart Chaorai-oi, 25, at the second bus terminal in Chiang Rai and found the heroin in their bag.
Both suspects are natives of Samut Sakhon province. Ake Surin, an inmate in Samut Sakhon prison who is also Miss Duangrudee's former boyfriend, hired them to collect the illicit drug from Mongkhol Jalae, 44, and Luecha Jeerabanpote, 61, in Muang district of Chiang Rai and deliver it to a trafficker in Phuket who would then smuggle the drug out of the country, he said.
Police later arrested Mr Mongkhol and Mr Luecha and seized from them cash, gold necklaces and two vehicles.
In another case, police arrested Somchai Jaiwan, 40, in Muang district of Chiang Rai and seized his pickup truck and other assets. He is suspected of being a member of a gang trafficking 100,000 methamphetamine pills seized in Sop Prap district of Lampang on Tuesday.
In Chiang Mai, Pol Gen Wuthi Liptapanlop, senior adviser to the Royal Thai Police Office, said police arrested Manas Thongsee-on, Ploy Ritthimol, and Sompong Palpai for allegedly possessing 130,000 methamphetamine pills.
Authorities searched their car and pickup truck at a checkpoint in Chai Prakan district and found the drug in a false compartment on the floor. The pills were hidden under a steel plate that was coated with ointment to keep sniffer dogs from detecting the drug. The suspects allegedly confessed they were delivering the pills to traffickers in the Central Plains.
Also in Chiang Mai, police arrested three hilltribe suspects in a sting operation at a store in Mae Rim district.
They say Sabeh Ja-eu, Kesarin Jala and Yalhi Jasa were lured into trying to sell 20,000 pills to them.