The Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) has so far this year foiled 35 drug smuggling cases at airports and seaports, leading to the confiscation of 973.4 kilogrammes of methamphetamine and 70.7kg of heroin bound for Australia.
Wichai Chaimongkol, secretary-general of the ONCB, on Monday said the Airport Interdiction Task Force (AITF) and the Seaport Interdiction Task Force (SITF) closely cooperated on these transnational criminal cases.
ONCB director Prin Mekhanan was assigned to lead an operations team consisting of members of the ONCB, the AITF and the SITF to conduct crackdowns, he said.
The anti-trafficking operations were conducted by the Customs Department, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, the Armed Forces Security Centre and the ONCB, Mr Wichai said.
In one case, an investigation had found that drugs would be concealed in parcels for international shipping, he said.
Mr Wichai said that on July 14, the team and staff from an international shipping service found two A3-sized paper boxes with "Inkjet Paper" printed on top. The crew found that the boxes contained four bags of heroin wrapped in aluminium foil, weighing about 1.2kg, he said.
Mr Wichai said the parcels were bound for Australia. The ONCB, therefore, contacted the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Thailand to investigate a suspected network behind the smuggling, he said.
He said that the evidence could be traced back to traffickers in Thailand and Australia who previously attempted to ship drugs via airports and sea ports.
The drugs were concealed in parcels registered with an international shipping service, bound for Australia, he said.
He said the ONCB had tracked down key figures of a drug trafficking business in Thailand, leading to the AFP to sequester many assets owned by drug trafficking suspects in Australia.