A drug crackdown across Thailand on production and trafficking is in full swing right now, as evidenced by two major drug arrests at the start of this week alone.
Monday saw the seizure of 1.9 million meth pills and 10 kg of crystal meth “ice”, alongside the arrests of two suspects in Ayutthaya province, reports the Bangkok Post.
Acting on intelligence that Hmong drug couriers were planning to smuggle a haul from Chiang Rai down to Ayutthaya, narcotics police were deployed along their potential routes in a bid to intercept them.
Two pick-up trucks were identified as being possible search targets; while one escaped towards Bangkok and was later found abandoned on the Ayutthaya – Suphan Buri road, the other was seized and found to contain 950 packages containing the meth and ice.
Somchart Akararoongrote and Roongroj Sae Hoe, 29 and 31 years old respectively and both of Tak province, were arrested in connection with the haul.
In a separate operation also on Monday, police arrested three couples from the same family who were found to be smuggling 400 kg of marijuana with a street value of around ฿8-12 million (US$220,000-340,000) between them.
The couples, driving in a three-car convoy, were moving the drugs from Nakhon Phanom to Surat Thani and were stopped for a check on the Phetkasem road in Pathiu district. While the lead car was stopped for a search, the two subsequent cars in the convoy refused to stop and were chased by police. Once caught, each was found to be carrying around 200 kg of marijuana.
Upon their arrests, it was revealed that the couples were all from the same family in Nakhon Phanom and had been hired by a Laotian to smuggle the drugs for the sum of ฿150,000 (US$4,200).
Those arrested were Banphot Kulya and his wife Boonhiang Kulya in the lead car, Acting Sub Lt Tisaporn Umthiemsom and his wife Promlikit Kulya in the second car, and Mitniyom Kulya and his wife Kamla Kulya in the final car, who were also travelling with their children.
