CHIANG RAI: Some 200,000 speed pills, 24kg of crystal methamphetamine and 6kg of ketamine were abandoned by a suspected drug-smuggling gang who fled after seeing a military task force patrolling border areas in Mae Fa Luang district on Friday night.
A military patrol team from the Phamuang task force spotted four men walking from a forest along the border in tambon Mae Fa Luang at around 8.30pm. As those men, carrying rucksacks, acted suspiciously, the patrol team signalled them for a search.
However, those men looked frightened and abandoned the rucksacks before fleeing into the forest, Thai media reported on Saturday.
The troops examined the four abandoned rucksacks. Two of the sacks contained 100,000 speed pills each. The third rack contained 16 packs of crystal methamphetamine, each weighing 1kg, and the fourth sack contained 8kg of crystal methamphetamine, or 24kg in total.
There were also six 1kg packs of ketamine inside the fourth rucksack. Authorities were investigating to find out those involved in the drug smuggling.
Thai media reported that Col Kidakorn Chantra, commander of the Phamuang task force, received information that a drug caravan would smuggle narcotics from the border into Mae Fa Luang district during heavy downpours. He then ordered soldiers to patrol border areas before the soldiers spotted the four suspected smugglers crossing the border from Myanmar on Friday night.
