NAKHON PHANOM: Rangers made a large seizure of methamphetamine pills and arrested three men in Tha Uthen district of this northeastern border province on Sunday night.
The drugs were found by a unit from the 21st Ranger Task Force patrolling the Mekong river bank in Tha Uthen district, following a tip-off that a large shipment had been smuggled from Laos by boat, Maj Gen Sawarat Saengpol, commander of the Surasakmontree Force, said on Monday.
Nineteen fertiliser sacks were found on the river bank near Ban Nakha in tambon Phathan and three men detained as they arrived to collect them. The sacks contained 4,086,000 meth pills in total.
A fourth man escaped.
Anusorn Wangjulklang, 44, from Nonthaburi's Pak Kret district, allegedly said he was paid 3,000 baht to accompany the three other men from Bangkok to fetch some goods from Nakhon Phanom for delivery. He was unaware they were picking up meth pills.
Maj Gen Sawarat said the seized meth would be worth about 500 million baht on the black market.