Packages of methamphetamine pills found floating in Chiang Rai rivers

Packages containing around 1.2 million methamphetamine pills were found floating in rivers in the northern province Chiang Rai. Apparently, the packages had been floating in the Mae Lao and Ing rivers for three days.

Villagers reported the packages of drugs to police. Narcotics suppression officers searched the area and found a total of 1,268,000 methamphetamine pills. Officers suspect traffickers floated the packages down the rivers to avoid security forces along the natural border areas with Laos and Myanmar.

Major drug production bases are said to be in Myanmar’s region of the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. Thailand is a major transit country in Southeast Asia’s illicit drug trade.

Deputy commissioner of Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau, Pornchai Charoenwong told Chiang Rai Times that, this year, authorities have seized more than 300 million methamphetamine pills and nearly 20 tons of crystal methamphetamine.

“Fighting in Myanmar near the drug production sites is forcing out the products at a higher volume than usual… You can never really take down these networks.”

SOURCE: Chiang Rai Times