SONGKHLA: Police have seized 99 kilogrammes of heroin that smugglers abandoned by the roadside in Hat Yai district after being tailed on Friday.
Hat Yai police and narcotics officers had been tipped off that a large drug shipment from Chiang Mai was to be delivered in the district, and set up checkpoints at several locations.
Police at a checkpoint in tambon Khlong Hae on Sakhon Mongkol Road leading to Hat Yai town noticed a suspicious pickup truck that turned into an unnamed soi. They then checked the area and found 248 bricks of heroin, weighing 99 kilogrammes, and 6,000 methamphetamine pills. The haul had an estimated street value of 100 million baht.
The drugs were stuffed into three sacks and laid in three plastic containers, which were covered by second-hand clothes.
Pol Maj Gen Daoloi Mueandej, deputy commander of Police Region 9, said forensic officers collected fingerprints and checked security camera footage of possible routes of the suspected truck. Based on this, they were able to identify both the sender and the intended recipients of the drugs. Arrest warrants will be issued.
Police said the seizure was the largest in several years in the South. The seller was believed to be a Hmong in Chiang Mai and the buyer is said to be in Rangae district of Narathiwat province. The shipment was said to be destined for Malaysia where its value would increase by as much as ten-fold.
