Police in Chiang Mai have arrested 12 men, all hilltribes people, and seized 42kg of heroin and 38 kg of crystal methamphetamine with an estimated street value of 600 million baht in.
Pol Maj Gen Surapol Tuanthong, deputy chief of the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), announced the arrests at a press conference on Tuesday, Daily News newspaper's website reported.
He said three of the men arrested with the drugs worked for a major distribution network operating in the North.
All 12 suspects were arrested in Chiang Mai, and the drug haul was uncovered in three pickup trucks pulled over separately by police in Chiang Dao, Fang and Chai Prakan districts of the province on Monday. .
Pol Maj Gen Surapol said police had been conducting surveillance for days after receiving a tip that a group of Muser men would deliver illicit drugs from the Thai-Myanmar border in Chiang Mai’s Chiang Dao district to Mae Rim, where several Hmong traffickers would receive the drugs and carry them to Bangkok and other provinces.
On Sunday morning, police spotted three suspicious pickup trucks and followed them until 1am on Monday before making the arrests. Five suspects, Muser and Hmong men were apprehended. Police said they found the drugs in large suitcases in the three pickups.
Further questioning led police to the arrests of other suspects who are members of the Leesaw hilltribe in San Sai district, Pol Maj Gen Surapol said.
(Photos by Pornprom Satrabhaya)
