Customs officers at Bangkok’s Klong Toey port has seized 193.5 kgs of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice”, hidden in boxing punch bags bound for Australia in Bangkok, with a combined worth of about 116 million baht. A bigger lot of the drug – 299 kgs – has also been seized in Ubon Ratchathani province.
Director-General of the Customs Department Patchara Anantasilp told a news conference today that customs officers became suspicious that punch bags were being shipped to Australia because they are not a product in demand in the Australian market.
The punch bags were contained in 15 cardboard boxes, with their stands separately packaged. The products in the 30 boxes were declared as punch bags.
Customs officers opened the boxes and found about 12kgs of crystal meth hidden in each bag.
Patchara also said that customs officers checked the exporter and found it is a legitimate Thai company engaged in the boxing accessories and equipment trade.
Meanwhile, in Khemarat district of the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, police seized almost 300kgs of crystal methamphetamine from a pickup truck.
Acting on a tipoff, police set up a roadblock in Na Waeng sub-district, to look for the suspected truck, reported to be carrying a large amount of illicit drugs, smuggled across the border from the Lao PDR.
At about 11pm yesterday, a white pickup truck approached the checkpoint. Officials signalled the truck driver to stop, but the driver and his passenger quickly abandoned the vehicle and fled.
Police then searched it, they found 299kgs of ice in ten bags.
