Half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine seized – street value 1 Billion Baht

Police arrested Thinnakorn near the local train station but his accomplice, identified only by nickname Bee, escaped. The drugs were retrieved from the abandoned truck.

Thinnakorn told police he had been paid just 20,000 Baht to take the drugs to an unknown location. The man who had hired him had orddered him to drive from one place to another and then receive further instructions, he said.

Deputy police commissioner Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakarn said drugs had traditionally been smuggled in the North but this changed after police had increased their interception of drug smugglers in that region.

Gangs had now started using the Northeast as their main smuggling routes for transporting drugs to southern Thailand and Malaysia.

The drugs are then distributed to other destinations, including Australia and Taiwan, where such a large quantity of “ice” could be worth even more than the estimated 1 billion Baht, Chalermkiat said.

STORY: The Nation