15.2 million meth pills seized in Northern checkpoint stops
A series of drug traffickers stopped at checkpoints in and around Chiang Rai over the last week has netted a total of 15.2 million meth pills found and seized by police. Yesterday the police revealed a series of incidents at checkpoints in the northern region where police found huge amounts of methamphetamines hidden inside cars.
Several large busts were made on January 14 and January 15 that were just announced, as well as a confrontation early this morning that netted 6.6 million meth pills. The details of 4 particularly fruitful checkpoint stops are below:
JANUARY 19, 2:30 AM
In Mae Sai district in the early hours of this morning, an Isuzu MU-X SUV blew through a military checkpoint according to the commander of the North Region Drug Suppression Operation Centre. Soldiers stationed there gave chase and managed to catch up and pass the SUV and stop it. Inside they found and arrested a 28-year old driver from Sing Buri province along with 33 bags containing 6.6 million meth pills.
JANUARY 15, 7:30 PM
A drug checkpoint in Mae Phrik in Lampang province pulled over a Toyota Rigo and a Toyota Corolla. 3 men between the ages of 20 and 42 in the cars from Ban Pong district in Ratchaburi were are arrested for transporting 143 packages that have a total of 286,000 meth pills inside.
JANUARY 14, 8:30 PM
Police in Khun Tan district silver a Toyota Revo pickup truck and a Mitsubishi Pajero SUV. 30 big bags with about 6 million meth pills were found it within the SUV, leading to the arrest of 3 men between the ages of 21 and 25, two of which were from Chiang Rai and one from Phayao.
JANUARY 14, 6:30 PM
In Denchai district of Phrae province, police said an x-ray checkpoint received a strange request. The owner of an Isuzu pickup truck travelling with a driver requested that police search his vehicle. He said that a man had paid him 6,000 baht to pick up vegetables from my house in Chiang Rai near the central Sports Stadium and transport them to Samut Prakan’s Samrong Nua district.
They picked up 30 foam boxes but as they were transporting them, the owner felt suspicious so he told the driver to stop at the X-ray checkpoint. Scans revealed that only 18 of the boxes had vegetables and that 12 of them beneath the vegetable boxes were full of 2.3 million meth pills.
Police are investigating that strange incident further to try to determine who bought or sold the cache of meth pills that the truck driver became caught in the middle of.
