A man who bought a pickup truck at an auction found 20 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine hidden inside and immediately returned it to the auction agency in Bang Na district of Bangkok, police said on Saturday.
Police and forensic investigators went to the auction firm on Thepparat Road in Bang Na Tai on Friday night after the company informed them about the vehicle owner’s discovery.
They found 20 packs of crystal methamphetamine, each weighing one kilogramme, hidden in a secret compartment of the Isuzu D-Max, said Pol Lt Col Supakorn Kaewkhiew, deputy investigation chief at the Bang Na station.
The pickup, it turns out, had been involved in a drug seizure in Satun on Sept 17, 2018. Drug smugglers had parked the vehicle at a palm oil plantation in tambon Nikhom Pattana of Manang district in the southern province before fleeing the scene. When local police arrived, they found 280kg of crystal meth inside the vehicle.
Authorities believed the drugs, with a face value of 280 million baht, were destined for Malaysia.
The officers later returned the pickup to Thanachart Bank, which owned the vehicle. The bank later asked the auction firm in Bang Na to put it up for sale. It attracted a winning bid of 200,000 baht.
But when the new owner started making preparations to install a car audio system in the vehicle, he found more drugs that the Satun investigators apparently had missed, said Pol Lt Col Supakorn.
The seized drugs will be handed over to Manang district police in Satun for further investigation as they are from the same batch as those found earlier.