Two suspects were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the seizure of 600,000 speed pills and some 10kg of crystal methamphetamine in Uttaradit province late last week, police said.
Natthapong Noithep, 25, was apprehended at a house in Nong Sua district of Pathum Thani province and Phethai Borisut, 23, in Prachin Buri’s Sri Maha Phot, Pol Maj Gen Phayoo Thanasrisuebwong, chief of Uttaradit police, said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
The two arrests followed the discovery of backpacks containing a large quantity of drugs in a roadside ditch on Uttaradit-Den Chai Road in tambon Ban Dan Na Kham of Muang district, Uttaradit on June 21.
Five bags containing 600,000 speed pills and 10.85kg of crystal methamphetamine were found about one kilometre from a police checkpoint. Suspects travelling in a white car had dumped the drugs and fled, Pol Maj Gen Phayoo said.
Wednesday's two arrests were linked to the abandoned drug shipment.(continues below)
The five bags with 600,000 speed pills and 10.85kg of crystal meth dumped in a ditch in Uttaradit. (Photo by Boonnum Kerkkaew)
The seized drugs were worth about 40 million baht in Thailand. If smuggled out of the country, the drugs would have fetched about 100 million baht, the police commander said.
Uttaradit police investigators first arrested two women, Renu Khamthathongthap, 27, of Nakhon Nayok’s Ongkharak district; and Wanida Leknoiwong, of Pathum Thani’s Lam Luk Ka district, on Tuesday.
That led to arrests of Mr Natthapong and Mr Phethai on Wednesday. A fifth suspect remained at large.
Mr Natthapong was the driver of a car travelling ahead of the white vehicle carrying the drugs, according to Pol Maj Gen Phayoo. His job was to signal the two women on board the white car, driven by Mr Phethai, if he saw a police checkpoint on the road ahead.
He did, and the women dumped the drugs and fled, according to police.
Police were hunting down the remaining suspect.
One of the two drug suspects caught on Wednesday. He and another suspect were arested separately in Pathum Thani and Prachin Buri following the arrest of two women on Tuesday. (Photo by Boonnum Kerdkaew)
Police display the drugs seized from a roadside ditch in Uttaradit province, during a media briefing on Wednesday. (Photo by Boonnum Kerdkaew)