BANKOK: Police have arrested seven Chiang Rai residents who are alleged to be members of a Myanmar-based drug ring and seized more than 1.1 million methamphetamine tablets. The seven suspects were apprehended and taken to a press conference at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau.
Police said the seized pills belonged to the “Wiang Kaen” network which has a drug production facility in Myanmar. The gang used Loa as a transit point before smuggling the contraband into Thailand. Police also seized three cars and nine mobile phones.
National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said the drug squad had tracked the movements of the northern gang for two months until they arrested Jirawat Khathadhammawut, 37, who was delivering the speed pills in a pickup truck on the Dan Khun Thot-Mueang Khom Road in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Dan Khun Thot district.
Further investigation led to the arrest of the six other drug suspects Wichai Chattanartworakul, 36, Somboon Kammalamorakot, 35, Ying Sae-lee, 36, Santi Sae-lao, 28, Surin Khathadhammawut, 32, and a 17-year-old man — at a hotel in Muang district of Leoi province, where they were waiting for the ya ba pills.
Pol Lt Gen Rewat Klinkesorn, the NSB commissioner, said the group was involved in the killing of two police officers who tried to arrest those four years ago. He declined to reveal where the drug would have gone pending further investigation.
