CHIANG RAI: Thirteen drug smugglers died during a shootout with the military near the Myanmar border in Mae Fa Luang district on Saturday night, Pha Muang Task Force commander Maj Gen Praphat Phobsuwan said yesterday.
About 1.7 million methamphetamine pills were seized during the drug suppression operation by the Pha Muang Task Force's Thap Chao Tak unit at Pang Ma Han village in tambon Therd Thai.
Soldiers and supervisors of the unit found the bodies of 13 people and 17 sacks containing altogether about 1.7 million speed pills.
According to Maj Gen Praphat, the gun battle between soldiers and the drug gang erupted at 7pm on Saturday when soldiers attempted to search a group of men they saw walking through a forest.
The men did not stop and opened fire on the patrol instead, prompting a volley of shots aimed back at them from the soldiers.
The soldiers waited until the morning before surveying the location. The sacks stuffed with meth pills were found with the bodies.
Each sack contained about 100,000 meth pills. Soldiers will also search the surrounding area to look for more evidence, said Maj Gen Praphat.
Later the same day, the Royal Thai Army posted on its Facebook page that its Narcotics Suppression Unit and the Narcotics Suppression Unit of the Royal Thai police had seized another 1,118,000 meth pills from a house that had been under surveillance for a while in Muang Chaing Rai district's tambon Mae Yao.
The narcotic pills were kept in four large sacks.