Chiang Rai provincial police seized 1.5 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine (Ice) from a military-style lorry on Sunday and arrested seven suspects in a major drug bust in Mae Fa Luang district.
Two of the suspects were injured by gunfire when they attempted to resist arrest.
Maj-Gen Kidakorn Chanthra, commander of the Pha Muang Task Force, said that this major confiscation of illegal narcotics was related to another seizure of 1,413kg of Ice from a truck last December, also in Mae Fa Luang district. No one was arrested then, but police found a smart phone in the vehicle.
He disclosed that traffickers, allegedly led by “Chutitan”, a Lisu ethnic tribesman, had modified the six-wheel truck to look like military transport, in an attempt to fool officials at road blocks, adding that the registration number matched that of a decommissioned military vehicle.
According to a police report, the gang met at Chutitan’s resort, in Muang district of Chiang Rai, last Thursday. The following day, they went to a durian plantation in Chiang Saen district, before separating in five vehicles. One of them was the modified military lorry, which headed for Santi Khiri village on Mae Salong mountain in Mae Fa Luang district, reportedly to take delivery of the Ice.
The drugs were found stuffed into fifteen 200-litre oil drums on the lorry.
After the drug seizure, police raided the durian plantation, also belonging to Chutitan, and several more 200-litre oil drums, weapons, hand grenades and military fatigues were found.
A warrant for Chutitan’s has been issued.
