The Thai troops shot and killed eight suspected drug traffickers and seized about a million methamphetamine pills on Thai soil, close to the border with Myanmar, in Mae Fah Luang district of the northern province of Chiang Rai last night (Friday).
Troops from the Pha Muang task force were dispatched to the mountain village of Ban Liseh last night, after they received a tipoff that a drug caravan was about to cross the border from Myanmar into the Thai village.
About ten men, several wearing backpacks and others carrying firearms, who are believed to have been guarding the drugs, were spotted. A Thai trooper ordered the intruders to stop for a search, only to be shot at by the guards.
The Thai troops returned fire, triggering a brief firefight. Because the encounter took place in the pitch dark, the troops waited until dawn before combing the area.
Eight men were found dead at the scene and several backpacks were found abandoned, inside which the authorities found an estimated one million methamphetamine pills.
