Soldiers of the Pha Muang force early Tuesday morning seized 1.66 million methamphetamine pills and 43 kilogrammes of crystal meth, or "ice", with a total estimated street worth of one billion baht.
After receiving a tip that there would be an attempt to smuggle a large amount of illegal drugs into Thailand through the nearby border, Pha Muang force commander Maj Gen Somsak Nilbanjerdkul sent a special task force to patrol the Mae Sai-Koh Chang road in tambon Mae Sai of Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district.
The patrol was on the rural road at Ban Wiang Hom when they spotted seven men carrying big fertilizer sacks on their shoulders. They signaled them to stop but the men instead dropped the sacks and fled back over the border to Myanmar.
They opened the abandoned sacks and found 1.66 million methamphetamine pills and 43 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine.
The soldiers believed the smugglers were members of the gang run by the self-styled Lt Col Yise, which brings drugs across the border and then hands them over to other gangs for delivery throughout Thailand.