NAKHON PHANOM: A patrol from the navy's Mekong Riverine Unit (MRU) seized 120 kilogrammes of dried marijuana and arrested a man after a car chase in That Phanom district late on Sunday night.
Capt Rit Nathawong, commander of the MRU's Nakhon Phanom station, said at a press conference on Monday that the car chase occurred after a Honda Accord sedan failed to stop for a search at a checkpoint.
During the chase, patrol members opened fire at the rear tires of the car, forcing it to stop in tambon Nam Kam of That Phanom district.
The authorities found in the car 120 bars of dried marijuana, weighing 1kg each.
The car driver, Nopparat Hinkaew, 32, from Prachuap Khiri Khan's Pran Buri district, was arrested.
Mr Nopparat allegedly said he was hired to drive the car from the South to pick up the marijuana in That Phanom district. He was to be paid 50,000 baht on the completion of the delivery of the drugs to the South.
During the past three months, more than 10 million methamphetamine pills and 6 tonnes of marijuana smuggled across the Mekong river to Thailand have been seized in Nakhon Phanom.