NAKHON PHANOM: Nearly one million methamphetamine pills were seized and one suspect arrested late on Monday night by a patrol from the navy's Mekong Riverine Unit (MRU) following a car chase.
The action followed intelligence information that a large quantity of drugs had been smuggled across the Mekong river from Laos and would be further transported to the inner parts of the country.
Patrol units were deployed along border roads for an interception.
Late on Monday night, a patrol spotted a four-door Isuzu pick-up truck travelling from Ban Song Khon in tambon Pong Kham of Mukdahan towards Na Kae district. Navy soldiers signalled the vehicle to stop for a search, but it instead sped away, prompting them to give chase.
The pick-up stopped near a village in Na Kae district and the driver fled.
A search of the pick-up revealed three sacks containing 972,000 meth pills with a street value of about 10 million baht. A man identified as Chart Meesri, 50, from Khukhan district of Si Sa Ket province, was found in the vehicle and arrested.
Capt Rit Natwong, commander of the Nakhon Phanom station of the MRU, said the meth pills had been delivered from the North via Laos before being smuggled across the Mekong to Northeast Thailand.
During the past three months more than 5 million meth pills had been seized in Nakhon Phanom, he said.