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 on Sunday that during the period from October last year to May, Region 5 police seized over 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 drug trade.
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