Chiang Rai drug traffickers clash with officials: Two fatalities reported
A violent confrontation erupted in Chiang Rai when a drug trafficking caravan refused to halt at the command of officials. The traffickers, armed and dangerous, fired shots at the officers. The clash ended with two traffickers dead, following the officials’ retaliatory gunfire. The incident occurred around 8.30pm yesterday.
Manop Senakul, the Police Lieutenant Colonel and head of Chiang Rai Provincial Police, was alerted about the intense encounter between the officials and the drug trafficking convoy in the border forest between Thailand and Myanmar. The area of conflict spanned across Pa Sang Subdistrict in Mae Chan District and Mae Fah Luang District in Chiang Rai Province. Two fatalities were reported on the criminals’ side, prompting an immediate investigation.
Initially, it was revealed that local police officers, Chiang Rai provincial police, Border Police Region 5, Mae Fah Luang Police Station, Tak provincial army, Pha Mueang Task Force, and the Northern Border Drug Problem Management Operation Centre (NBPMOC) under Army Region 3 collectively surrounded the area near Sam Yek Ee Kor village, Moo 24, Mae Salong Nai Subdistrict, Mae Fah Luang District.
The officials encountered a group of approximately 10 men carrying modified straw bags traversing a local cornfield on a hill. Upon signalling the group to halt for inspection, the suspicious men opened fire on the officials, leading to a firefight, reported KhaoSod.
Post the gunfire exchange, all officials were reported safe, while the opposite party suffered two fatalities in the cornfield. Seven to eight straw bags suspected to contain illicit drugs were found abandoned along the forest line where the criminals had fled. The authorities have since cordoned off the area for safety.
Police Lieutenant General Krittapol Yisakorn, Commander of Region 5, is expected to inspect the area this morning.
In related news, a woman from Phetchaburi, known as Ae Rai Rhon Khon, was apprehended today, while disguised as a tourist and transporting drugs in a passenger van. Authorities seized nearly 50,000 methamphetamine pills as she prepared to enter Kanchanaburi. Read more about Drug trafficking
