SONGKHLA: Police have arrested a man with 651 kilogrammes of Malaysia-bound crystal meth or "ice" worth 520 million baht in Songkhla province and then caught his accomplice in Phitsanulok province.
Pol Lt Gen Ronasilp Phusara, chief of the Provincial Police Region 9, told a press conference on Monday in Hat Yai district that police seized the drugs from Samphan sae Harn, 29, and Baramee Yangcharoensap, 37. Both are natives of the northern province of Phrae.
Apart from the drugs, they seized two pickup trucks and three mobile phones from them.
Mr Samphan was arrested in front of a Shell petrol station on Asian Highway in tambon Tha Chang of Bang Klam district in the southern province at about 1am on Saturday. He was driving a pickup truck at the time.
Police later caught Mr Baramee at a checkpoint in tambon Wat Bot of Wat Bot district, the northern province of Phitsanulok, on the same day.
Police Lt Gen Ronasilp said both suspects carried the drugs from the North and were supposed to wait in Songkhla for others in their network to take them to southern border provinces and then Malaysia.
The suspects were part of a major transnational drug network called Phor Liang Tee. The racket involved 12 already identified traffickers in Thailand and Malaysia, the regional commissioner said.
Police show the seized drugs hidden in tea packages at Hat Yai police station in Songkhla province Monday. (Photo by Assawin Pakkawan)