CHIANG RAI – Army Cavalry soldiers and Thai police have seized more than 2 million meth pills and 11 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine after a high speed chase in Mae Chan district.
Officials told Thai media that soldiers from the Chiang Rai-based Second Cavalry unit were manning a check point Mae Fah Lung district, and spotted a Mitsubishi pickup parking on a roadside. When they tried to approach the vehicle is sped off towards Mae Chan district.
A team of police and soldiers gave chase on the Fang-Mae Chan road until they finally caught up with Mitsubishi pickup, abandoned on the side of the road in Tambon Mae Chan, Mae Chan district, at 12.30am.
Soldiers and police searched the abandoned vehicle and discovered unearthed 2.2 million meth pills packed into 15 bags, along with 11kg of “crystal meth.”
The seizure took place in the Thailand’s infamous Golden Triangle that borderlands of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, and hides one of the world’s largest centers of Meth and heroin production and distribution.
Once inside Thailand, tonnes of highly addictive crystal meth, known as “ice”, and hundreds of millions of yaba pills caffeine-laced methamphetamine tablets guzzled by everyone from laborers to ravers are consumed or warehoused before being smuggled onwards.
A months-long Thai military-led crackdown in Chiang Rai’s “Golden Triangle” has blocked the quickest drug route south. But with big money to be made, the drug gangs have carved out new routes west and east through Laos and across the Mekong.
By Geoff Thomas
Photo’s Chiang Rai Report
