Police catch car carrying three million meth pills in Thailand
This is the dramatic moment police caught a car carrying three million meth pills in Thailand.
Officers began tracking the grey Mitsubishi Triton following a tip-off that it was moving a drug shipment through Kalasin on October 17.
The pickup was spotted travelling from Huai Phueng towards Somdet district at around 7:55 pm local time, with police following it towards the Thepsuda Bridge.
At around 8:30 pm, the truck slowed down near the end of the bridge before officers moved in to detain the driver.
Bodycam footage shows police aiming their guns at the pickup truck as they surrounded it.
When the driver failed to comply with orders to come out, one officer smashed the window open before reaching inside to unlock the door and arrest him.
Police seized 15 sacks containing an estimated 3,030,000 methamphetamine pills from the truck, the Border Patrol Police Region 2 said.
Two suspects, identified as Sornchai, 44, from Khon Kaen, and Surasak, 38, from Kalasin, were arrested during the operation.
They claimed they had been hired by a Thai man living in Laos to transport the drugs from Mukdahan province to a customer in Khon Kaen. They allegedly agreed to receive 80,000 baht for the delivery and claimed it was their first time transporting narcotics.
Police Major General Wutthiphong Yenjit, commander of Border Patrol Police Division Region 2, said in a press conference on October 19 that both suspects had previously been arrested for drug-related offences and were released last year.
He said: 'We have taken both suspects into custody and charged them with the distribution of Category 1 narcotics, specifically, possession with the intent to distribute.
'Their actions were carried out for commercial purposes, contributing to the spread of drugs among the public and posing a threat to state security or the safety of the general population.'
Thailand has become a notorious hub for drug use, production, and trafficking. In the north of the country, the ‘Golden Triangle' area shares borders with Laos and Myanmar, and has produced large amounts of opium since the 1950s but focus in recent years has shifted to the more profitable methamphetamine.
Officials believe most of the meth is produced in the Shan State of Myanmar before being distributed through neighbouring countries where prices are higher before ending up in the most expensive markets of Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
However, cracking down on drug production has been complicated by the influx of crime gangs from China and the Burmese civil war, which has seen the army take over the country - along with control of lucrative drugs chains.
