CHIANG MAI: Seventy suspects were arrested and more than 700,000 methamphetamine pills and guns and ammunition seized during five days of drug raids in the North, police said on Friday.
Those arrested included a married couple alleged to be members of a major drugs network, detained in Saraphi district of Chiang Mai province on the first day of the operation.
Pol Lt Gen Piya Tawichai, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 5, and senior police and drug suppression officials, released details during a media briefing on Friday.
Pol Lt Gen Piya said police impounded assets worth more than 60 million baht from drug networks in Chiang Rai, Phayao and Nan provinces during the raids.
The operation ran from Nov 8-12. Seventy suspects were arrested and 712,020 meth pills and 14 illegal firearms and 70 rounds of ammunition were seized.
They allleged two of the suspects were members of a large drug ring..
Mai Sae Ja, of Chiang Mai’s San Sai district, and her husband Jaimoo, of Wiang Haeng district, were apprehended separately in Saraphi district on Nov 8.
The woman was caught in a sting, set up by an undercover officer who contacted a gang and arranged a 25,000 baht purchase of speed pills.
When Ms Sai showed up at an agreed spot on a road in tambon Saraphi, police searched her and found 4,000 meth pills in her possession. They then arrested her husband at a house in tambon San Phra Nate in San Sai district, where 20 meth pills were found.
A search of a dormitory room used by the couple found 708,000 more meth pills.
The couple face charges of colluding in possessing illicit drugs with intent to sell.