CHIANG RAI: A woman was arrested after some 860kg of crystal methamphetamine, or ya ice, was seized from a refrigerated pickup truck she was driving during a police chase of two vehicles in Chiang Rai early Tuesday.
Police from Chiang Rai and Provincial Police Region 5 were deployed to hide along Chiang Rai-Thoeng Road in tambon Thasai -- near a bridge across the Lao River -- following a tip-off that a drug gang was about to traffic a large quantity of illicit drugs through this northern border province.
The officers spotted two pickup trucks - a black vehicle with Bangkok licence plates and a white refrigerated pickup truck with no licence plates - travelling along the route in the early hours of Tuesday, Thai media reported.
The police gave chase and managed to stop the refrigerated pickup truck, which was following the first vehicle, at around 3.30am on Tuesday.
Ms Chayada Chaiwaenkhwaen, 29, a native of Chiang Mai’s Mae Taeng district who was driving the refrigerated vehicle, was arrested after a search uncovered 860kg of crystal meth in the refrigerated container. The drugs were packed in 32 rucksacks.
Another police team chased the first vehicle to a graveyard in Phan district of Chiang Rai, where the driver abandoned the pickup truck and fled into the darkness. The runaway driver was later identified as Ekkarat Pitakprai, 29, of Chiang Mai’s Mae Wang district.
Ms Chayada reportedly told police that both she and Mr Ekkarat are lawyers. She was said to have admitted the two were smuggling the drugs from Chiang Rai's Thoeng district to an agent in Chiang Mai.
Police Maj Gen Panudet Boonruang, deputy commander of Provincial Police Region 5, said the drug gang had avoided using main roads and areas bordering Myanmar, opting instead to smuggle the drugs across the Mekong River to Wiang Kaen district of Chiang Rai. They then used a secondary road to transport the drugs to Chiang Mai. He believed the drugs may have destined for overseas, since they were carefully wrapped before being placed in the rucksacks.
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