The Provincial Police Region 5 has confiscated almost 200 million methamphetamine pills during the past seven months as drug traffickers changed smuggling routes to avoid authorities which have stepped up crackdowns.
Pol Lt Gen Montri Sumboonnanont, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5, said yesterday that during the period from October last year to May, Region 5 police seized more than 196 million methamphetamine pills.
The drugs were seized while being transported from locations on the border with Myanmar on the western side of the North over to the eastern side, where they were headed across the border into Laos.
From Laos, the drugs would then be smuggled across the border into the Northeast of Thailand via Loei, Nong Khai and Bung Kan provinces, he added.
Previously, the drugs were smuggled from the border on the northwestern side of the country and then headed down to the Central Plains Region, Pol Lt Gen Montri said.
He said the smugglers have changed the route after the number of police checkpoints in the Provincial Police Region 5 covering the upper northern provinces increased to 79 as police step up crackdowns on the drug trade.
Meanwhile, combined government forces arrested two men with 962,000 methamphetamine pills in their possession in Chiang Khong district of the northern province of Chiang Rai on Saturday, Pol Lt Gen Montri said yesterday.
He identified the two as Kachapol Sae Wang, 26, of Mae Fa Luang district, and Yutthana Songsakluechai, 21, of Chiang Saen district.
They were arrested at 3.30pm on Saturday when they were intercepted at Ban Nanoy in tambon Wiang of Chiang Khong district by members of the Chiang Rai Mekong Riverine Unit and the 31st Ranger Task Force.
The pickup was suspected to be carrying drugs and had been tracked by police from the Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Fa Luang district.
