Troops from Thailand’s northern-based Pha Muang task force clashed with the armed guards of a drug caravan in the forest near the Myanmar border in Mae Ai district of Chiang Mai province early this morning, killing four of them and confiscating a large quantity of illegal narcotics, including 760,000 methamphetamine tablets, 4kg of heroin and 25kg of raw opium.
The Thai troops were on a routine patrol along the border in Ban Na Ma-urn when they came across a group of about 15 men, several of whom were armed while others carried backpacks. The troops ordered them to stop, only to be shot at, sparking a fierce gun battle which lasted for about five minutes before the suspects fled the scene.
The troops waited until sunrise before combing the scene. Four men were found dead and 11 backpacks were found. A subsequent search uncovered the narcotics.
Meanwhile, in Kamphaeng Phet province, Klong Khloong district police intercepted a pickup truck following a brief car chase and seized methamphetamine tablets, worth about eight million baht, hidden in 40 sacks.
Police said that they had to fire several shots at the truck’s tyres to force it to stop, after the driver, an ethnic Yunnanese Thai, tried to flee. The police searched the truck and found the drugs, hidden under a huge load of cucumbers.
