Thai police intercepts truck laden with yaba pills

BANGKOK: Thai Police busted a major attempt to smuggle drugs into Malaysia when they intercepted a truck carrying one million yaba pills, a type of methaphetamine, four days ago in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.
According to Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) commander Maj Gen Tanai Aphichartseni, two Thai nationals from Songkla were arrested in a predawn raid on a ten-wheeler truck.
"Both of the suspects admitted they were instructed to transport the drugs to Hatyai first and then Sadao before smuggling it into Malaysia. The police found 10 bags full of yaba pills inside the truck," he told a media conference here today.
He said the duo, who were paid 400,000 baht (about RM50,000), were supposed to load the truck with oranges when they stopped in Chiang Mai en route to southern Thai, in an effort to hoodwink the authorities from discovering the truck's true consignment.
Unknown to the men, the authority had put both of them under five-month surveillance before making the arrest four days ago, he said.
Tanai said the suspects had also confessed to the authority of their success in transporting the drugs to southern Thailand and Malaysia several times before this, receiving 200,000 baht (about RM25,000) for each trip.
"This time they received 400,000 baht because of the higher amount of drugs they transported," he said, adding that the police suspected the mastermind is in Hatyai and would be issuing an arrest warrant on him.
Tanai also said that the drugs transported by both men were packaged neatly and carried the "999" label in red colour which indicated that it was sourced from northern Wa State, an autonomous region in Myanmar notoriously known for producing drugs.
He added that the two men could be facing death penalty or life sentence if they confess to the crime. — Bernama