TAK: Border offiials intercepted 136 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana being smuggled across the border from Mae Sot district to Myawaddy, in Myanmar, on Monday.
The drugs were found when a white Totoya van with Myanmar registration was stopped at the security checkpoint in front of the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge at Ban Wang Takhian Tai in tambon Tha Sai Luat, Mae Sot district.
The van was loaded with many boxes, each documented as containing cans of engine oil. When the driver, Maung Mo Win, 35, was asked, he said they contained frozen chicken. This aroused suspicions.
When opened, the boxes were found to contain a total of 136 one-kilogramme slabs of compressed marijuana.
The driver said he picked up the boxes from a man named Mutin at Moo 1 village in tambon Tha Sai Luat. They were to be delivered to a person in Myawaddy.
The driver said he was not aware they contained marijuana.
The van, the marijuana and the driver were handed over to Mae Sot police for legal action.
The security checkpoint at the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge is jointly manned by soldiers from the 4th Infantry Regiment, immigration police and customs officials.