Hundreds of thousands of meth pills seized in Songkhla

Thailand’s meth problem is rearing its ugly head again, this time in the Southern province of Songkhla. Narcotics control police seized about 400,000 meth pills from a rented room in the Bang Klam district on Sunday.

The suspect, 28 year old Athiwat, allegedly told police that he had stored 15 consignments of about 200,000 meth pills, also known as Yaba, in his room. Athiwat said he was paid 20,000 baht for looking after each consignment.

He said that about a week ago, a man contacted him to pick up four parcels from a privately run service in the Hat Yai district. Each parcel contained about 800,000 meth pills.

Athiwat said that he and his friend picked up the four parcels, and brought them to his room. Two of the parcels were delivered to an unidentified man, he said. Police have now arrested the man, Thai PBS World reported.

Meth continues to be the most popular, cheap, and readily available illicit narcotic in Thailand and all over Southeast Asia, where the synthetic drug trade is booming.

Last year alone, more than one billion meth pills were seized in east and Southeast Asia, according to a report released by the United Nations. It is considered the “drug of greatest concern” in the region by the UN.

In April, Thai police arrested more than 120,000 drug suspects in the past six months. They seized more than 2.4 billion baht in assets and confiscated more than 260 million pills of illegal substances, including meth.

Last week, police arrested five drug smugglers in Thailand’s northern Kamphaeng Phet province yesterday. Officers from the Narcotics Suppression Division seized 1.6 million meth pills from the suspects.

The suspects had been driving from Chiang Rai to Bangkok to deliver the pills. The police then apprehended them at a gas station.

There have been a few drug busts in Thailand this year involving millions of meth pills. The biggest bust happened back in January when police seized 15.2 million meth pills in the northern Chiang Rai province.