Tak: Authorities have intercepted a trailer carrying 1,500 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine heading to Nakhon Pathom on a new drug trafficking route near the Thai-Myanmar border.
The 18-wheeler was ordered to stop at a checkpoint in Haui Ya-u on the Tak-Mae Sot road yesterday. Initially, the truck seemed empty when officers conducted an inspection. However, a closer look beneath the vehicle's flooring plate revealed what officers described as "hidden holes".
Inside the holes was a large haul of drugs wrapped in bags with words written in a foreign language.
The officers estimated that the value of the load was approximately 500 million baht.
The police suspected that the drivers -- Sakon Karunrak and Somchok Niamsakun -- had been hired to take the drugs from Tak's Phop Phra district to customers in Nakhon Pathom.
However, the pair claimed that they had no knowledge of the illegal drugs in the trailer.
Investigators believe drug gangs are using the route on this part of the border to avoid a harsh crackdown under a cooperation deal between the Thai and Myanmar governments.
Elsewhere, the Crime Suppression Division apprehended four drug suspects in two separate operations.
One operation led to the seizure of 20kg of crystal methamphetamine from a major drug gang, run by two men identified only as Hia (brother) Bang and Hia Rong.
A 20-year-old woman, Waraphon Makyot, and two men -- Wirot Hiranwadi, 37 and Phethai Thongsi, 62 -- who are believed to work for the gang, were arrested in a sting operation.
A police informant, who contacted the gang to buy crystal methamphetamine, was told to take the drugs left at a scrap shop on Soi On Nut 88 in Bangkok and paid money to the trio at shopping malls in the city's Lat Phrao and Pathum Thani area.
In the other operation, police caught Natthawut Unnok, 23, as he was about to deliver about 2,000 speed pills to a customer near Setthaphon temple in Bueng Kan's Bueng Khong Long district. His friend managed to evade arrest, according to officers.