Authorities on Saturday seized 112 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana buried underground at a house in Pathum Thani and arrested two women.
Officers lift marijuana-laden boxes from their hiding place in the compound of a house in Pathum Thani. (Photo by Pongpat Wongyala)
A team of soldiers, police and local officials searched the house in tambon Khlong Nueng in Khlong Luang district around 2pm on Saturday.
During the operation, officers became suspicious about wooden planks piled on the ground outside the house. When they removed the boards and started digging, they found 49 bars of compressed marijuana wrapped in plastic and contained in large plastic boxes. The seized drugs weighed 49 kilogrammes.
The officers found another 63 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana buried beneath the house after prying apart a section of the wooden floor. The seized drugs, weighing a total of 112kg, were worth about 1.4 million baht, said authorities.
Two caretakers — Pranee Pimpa, 27, and another woman identified only as La-iad, 47 — were arrested and a car seized.
Pachai Poriyanon, chief of Khlong Luang district, said the raid followed an investigation into reports that marijuana was being sold from the house. The drugs reportedly had been transported by train, he added.
Authorities are now widening their investigation to arrest those involved in the smuggling of the illicit drugs.