NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Police have seized more than 600kg of compressed marijuana hidden in a pickup truck abandoned by a drug-smuggling gang in Sikhiu district.
When local police went to a roadside bush in tambon Kritsana on Friday, they found the pickup truck with the bed covered by a tarpaulin in the area. Ms Jiratchada Chopking, village head of Wang Rongnoi village in Sikhiu district, had alerted them.
Many fertliser sacks containing compressed marijuana weighing 654 kg in total were found hidden in the back of the vehicle, Pol Maj Gen Watcharin Boonkhong, chief of Nakhon Ratchasima police, said during a media briefing on Saturday.
A police investigation found the driver of the pickup truck with Bangkok licence plates might have smuggled marijuana from Laos via Nakhon Phanom province at around 11pm on June 4. Another vehicle was leading him along the route.
When the pickup truck arrived in Nakhon Ratchasima in the early hours of June 5, the driver abandoned it near the roadside bush in Sikhiu district after seeing police checkpoints ahead, said police. A local resident later found the vehicle and alerted the village head.
Authorities were investigating.