Thai police seized 8.6 million methamphetamine tablets and five vehicles and arrested four suspects in three interceptions in the northern provinces of Lampang and Phrae between October 5th and 7th, said Pol Lt-Gen Piya Tavichai, commissioner of Region 5 Provincial Police Bureau, at a news conference today (Monday).
On October 5th, police in Mae Prik district of Lampang stopped two cars, which matched those identified in a tipoff, at a village in Mae Prik sub-district. Searches of the cars uncovered six million methamphetamine pills hidden in 30 sacks. The two drivers were arrested.
On October 7th, also in Mae Prik district, police tried to stop a pickup truck for at a checkpoint, but the driver sped away. The truck was later found by a village headman abandoned in roadside woods, but no drugs were found in the vehicle.
After a search of the nearby area, however, the village headman reported that he had found several backpacks containing 618,000 methamphetamine tablets.
On October 7th, in Den Chai district of Phrae province, police stopped two trucks and seized two million methamphetamine tablets hidden in ten sacks in the vehicles. The two drivers were also taken into custody.
Pol Lt-Gen Piya said that, besides drug suppression efforts, the Royal Thai Police have also taken steps to ensure that the police themselves are free of illegal drugs, by subjecting them to periodic random urine tests.
He said that authorities hope to seize illegal narcotics and assets worth as much as 100 billion baht from drug traffickers in the next fiscal year.
