Marijuana valued at 10 million baht seized in Nakhon Phanom, 2 arrested

Last night in Nakhon Phanom, a northeastern province close to the Laos border, a navy patrol arrested 2 men and seized 520 kilogrammes of compressed and dried marijuana. The men were travelling by pickup truck.

The deputy commander of Nakhon Phanom Mekon Riverine Unit, Nathapat Suemongkol, says the truck was stopped by a patrol on the Phanom-Mukdahan road. He did not say why the police stopped the vehicle.

When the police searched the vehicle, they unearthed 520 packages of marijuana in the back of the vehicle. Each package weighed about 1 Kilogram.

The seizure is estimated to be valued at 10 million baht.

The suspects who were arrested are 39 year old Den Sangsongha, and 35 year old Chumpae Chalue. Reportedly, they are both from Mukdahan, which, like Nakhon Phanom is not far from the Mekong River.

The men allegedly said a Lao man promised to pay them 50,000 baht in return for transporting the marijuana, which had been smuggled across the river from Laos, from That Phanom district to Mukdahan.

The 2 suspects allegedly told police that “someone else” was waiting in Mukdahan to take the lucrative packages to the south of Thailand. allegedly, they said that a Lao man paid them 50,000 baht to bring the shipment from Laos to Thailand.

The Mekong river snakes through: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, making it a popular route for drug smugglers.

Last month, navy officers in Nakhon Phanom seized 350 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana as it was being offloaded from the Mekong River.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post