Border patrol police seized 449 kilograms of marijuana hidden under a pile of chicken droppings aboard an 18-wheel truck and arrested the truck driver in Satun early on Tuesday.
A team of border patrol policemen at a road checkpoint in Tambon Thung Nui of Satun’s Khuan Kalong district stopped the 18-wheel truck following an informant’s tip-off.
The truck was then driven to the 436th Border Patrol Police Company for checking. They found boxes wrapped in plastic sheets hidden under the pile of chicken droppings. Inside the boxes police found the marijuana and 6,000 methamphetamine pills.
The truck driver, Rakchart Mekdol, 41 a resident of Nakhon Phanom, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking. The driver claimed to know nothing of the drugs as said he was paid Bt15,000 to transport the chicken droppings from Beung Kan province to a client in Satun.
Police said the drug was apparently smuggled across the border from Laos and was destined for Malaysia where it could have fetched Bt10,000 per kilogram.
