Three drug suspects have been arrested with large hauls of methamphetamine pills and crystal methamphetamine in two separate cases over the weekend.
Police held a press briefing at the Provincial Police Region 1, which oversees the Central Plains region, to announce the busts.
According to provincial police commissioner Suwat Jaengyodsuk, Kongkiat, aka Tee Sae-tin, a 24-year-old Samut Prakan man, was apprehended along with 554,000 speed pills and crystal meth weighing 1.4 kilogrammes in Bangkok on Saturday night.
The arrest came after police were tipped off by an informant that the man was a member of the Ong Chay Ha (the fifth prince) narcotics trafficking syndicate.
Police shadowed Mr Kongkiat until he was about to leave Building B at The Log 3, a condominium in Phra Khanong district on Saturday about 7pm.
Officers later identified themselves and conducted a search which at the time found 6,000 speed pills, or ya ba, and crystal meth, ya ice, weighing one gramme inside his bag.
Police then searched his room on the fifth floor where 548,000 speed pills and ya ice weighing 1.3kg were also discovered and impounded, bringing the total number of speed pills to 554,000 and crystal meth to 1.4kg.
Along with the illicit drugs, authorities seized an Isuzu D-Max pickup truck, a BMW sports bike and a Honda PCX motorcycle, worth a total of 2.2 million baht.
Pol Lt Gen Suwat said Mr Kongkiat told police he was hired by Thanakrit, alias Ha or Ngow Kanjanarat, the leader of the alleged drug ring, to store 600,000 speed pills and 5kg of ya ice in his room last month.
The probe would be expanded to track down other members of the gang, Pol Lt Gen Suwat said.
In a separate case, Natthawut Nothawian, 21, from Ayutthaya, and Cheewaporn Musikboonlert, 24, from Saraburi, were detained in Ayutthaya's Wang Noi district on the same day.
Police confiscated 10,000 speed pills, an Ayutthaya-registered Isuzu pickup truck and two cellphones from them.
The pair were apprehended as they were about to deliver the drugs to a customer in tambon Lan Ta Sao, police said.