
NARATHIWAT: Police are hunting for four suspects after arresting a man with 125 kilogrammes of crystal meth, or "ice", hidden in his truck in Waeng district, on the border with Malaysia.
Pol Lt Gen Ronasilp Phusara, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 9, told a media conference on Friday that Narathiwat native Mahamatoha Sasaemae, 46, was arrested after crystal meth worth about 125 million baht was found on his blue Isuzu pickup truck at a checkpoint on Kreeyor-Kholohtuvor Road, beside the Kolok River in tambon Kayukhla of Waeng about 4pm on Monday this week.
The river marks the border with Malaysia.
The drugs were inside packets marked as tea leaves, packed in five white fertiliser sacks covered with boxes of tissue paper. They were hidden in a separate, enclosed space in the tray of the truck.
Mr Mahamatoha told police he was to be paid 30,000 baht to drive the truck and deliver the cargo to a buyer who would be waiting on the Malaysian side of the river.
Pol Lt Gen Ronasilp said the four men who worked with Mr Mahamatoha fled when they learned about the arrest. The suspects were being hunted down.