Police are expanding their investigation into the confiscation of more than 100 grenades and 6,000 rounds of ammunition in Chiang Mai’s Mae Sai district.
The seizure was made on March 28 after a delivery service worker became suspicious and alerted local police, said deputy national police chief Suchart Thirasawat. Officers searched the packages and found 115 grenades plus 6,000 rounds of ammunition for M16 rifles.
The packages had been sent from three different provinces — Chon Buri, Nakhon Pathom and Nakhon Si Thammarat — to the delivery service office in the border district, where they were due to be collected and sent on to an address in Myanmar.
Manokorn Sangsorn, 29, and Songsak Sirichairungruang, 31, were arrested when they turned up to collect the packages. Both were charged with illegally possessing firearms.
Pol Gen Suchart said officers had found a connection between the packages and determined they were linked to a drug trafficking ring in the North and an arms smuggling network in the South.
Further inquiries led to the arrest of four others: Chitipan Chowmaee, 36, and Phakkhamet Kiratithanyasilp, 28, who were arrested in Nakhon Pathom; Thirapol Aranyapruek, 28, in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Pichayaphak Klongtan, 32, in Nakhon Ratchasima. All six detainees were handed over to Mae Sai police.