NAN: Seven drug couriers were arrested and 2.8 million methamphetamine pills with a street value of over 900 million baht seized at a checkpoint in Na Noi district, police said on Wednesday.
Police ordered a pickup truck with Bangkok licence plates to pull over for a search in tambon Sisaked, after noticing the driver seemed nervous, around 1.30am on Tuesday.
They found 14 fertiliser sacks containing 2.8 million speed pills on the back of the pickup. Driver Suchart Yangkhunnatham was arrested.
Six other gang members following behind in two other vehicles were also subsequently arrested, Pol Maj Gen Panudet Boonruang, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5, said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
The suspects confessed to having collected the illicit drugs from a rubber plantation near a petrol station in Phayao’s Phu Sang district.
Mr Suchart allegedly told police he had been contacted by a man identified only as Khao and asked to deliver the drugs from Phu Sang to Ayutthaya central province. Mr Suchart and the other suspects, from four families, were to be paid 800,000 baht for the job - 200,000 baht per family.
The 2.8 million meth pills, initially costing about 300 million baht, could fetch up to 900 million baht in Bangkok and other inner areas, Pol Maj Gen Panudet said.
Police believed the drugs were smuggled into the country by Wa and Muser gangs along the border. Several teams of couriers were used to transport them. The seven suspects were believed to be the second group hired to smuggle the drugs to inner areas of the country, the deputy police chief said.
Pol Maj Gen Atthasit Sudsa-nguan, chief of Nan police, said the investigation ws being extended. Police manning checkpoints in this northern province woud be ordered to make strict checks on passing vehicles.
Packages of meth pills concealed in 14 fertiliser sacks seized in Nan. The sacks contained 2.8 million pills, valued at more than 900 million baht in Bangkok. (Photo by Rarinthorn Petcharoen)