KHON KAEN — A new variety of speed pills has emerged in the Northeast with an orange flavour to lure teenagers into taking the illicit drug, police warned on Saturday.
The warning came after police arrested a couple and seized from them some speed pills with a fruity smell.
Nopporn Wapisor, 37, and his wife Mayulee Nunthaisong, 23, of Maha Sarakham’s Na Chuak district, were apprehended in front of a shopping mall in Na Chuak district. A total of 138 speed pills in orange colour, 8,000-baht cash, a motorcycle and a mobile phone were seized from them.
Drug suspects — Nopporn Wapisor, 37, and his wife Mayulee Nunthaisong, 23 — are shown at a police briefing on Khon Kaen province on Saturday. They were arrested with orange-flavoured speed pills in Maha Sarakham on Saturday. (Photo by Provincial Police Region 4's forward command via Jakkrapan Nathanri)
Pol Maj Gen Yanyong Vet-osod, commander of Provincial Police Region 4’s forward command, said on Saturday that the new form of methamphetamine with an orange flavour has become popular among teenage addicts in the Northeast. He has ordered police to drastically crack down on the illicit drugs in their areas.
During the interrogation, the couple confessed to having brought 2,000 orange-flavoured methamphetamine pills for sale in Maha Sarakham and most of them had been sold before they were caught, said Pol Maj Gen Yanyong.
The suspects said they had bought the new form of speed pills from a friend in Bangkok’s Phra Khanong area who was part of the network of a drug inmate in a northeastern prison.
They also implicated other gang members in selling the orange-flavoured speed pills in Maha Sakhakham and nearby Khon Kaen.
Police were extending the investigation to arrest more members of the drug gang.