Chiang Mai sting lands family of smugglers in custody

PHOTOS: The Nation

A family that smuggles together, stays together. In jail.

A family of six is under arrest in Chiang Mai after allegedly handing over 15 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 170,000 methamphetamine pills to undercover police in the province.

Police arrested all the members of the ethnic Lahu family. All were aged between 32 and 51 years. Police say they are parents, children and in-laws of the same family living in the Mae Hong Son Pai district.

Police were tipped off about the family trying to find buyers for a quantity of drugs.

The six arrived in two pickups at a designated location on Mae Malai-Pai Road. The occupants of one truck allegedly scouting the road, the others delivering the drugs.

Police say the family admitted to being hired by a fellow Lahu named “Janu Saenkhamfu” to sell drugs on commission and deliver them to Central provinces.

Investigators were told that the father and his wife had already abandoned their homes in Chiang Mai’s Fang and Chaiprakan districts.

STORY: The Nation