Authorities have seized almost some 950,000 speed pills worth over 100 million baht abandoned by a drug gang along the Mekong River in Tha Uthen district.
Navy officers found three sacks containing 954,000 methamphetamine pills on the river bank at Ban Paktuay village in Tha Uthen district on Tuesday morning, said senior navy officers during a media briefing. The seized drugs were estimated to be worth at least 100 million baht.
The seizure followed an investigation that smugglers had shifted the transit route of drug smuggling from the North to the Northeast during the Covid-19 situation and large quantities of drugs would be smuggled to border areas in the Northeast via the Mekong River.
Authorities believed the smugglers might have used long-tailed boats to smuggle the drugs and left them along the Mekong River bank before moving them into inner areas.
Patrols would be stepped up around the clock along border areas prone to drug smuggling, said senior officials.
Over the past 2-3 months, more than 10 million speed pills were seized in this northeastern province.
Capt Surasak Suwankesa, commander of the Mekong River operations unit, Akkhadet Naksuwan, assistant to Nakhon Phanom defence chief, and Pol Col Chaturong Mahithichot, Nakhon Phanom investigation chief, were present at the media briefing to announce the seizure of the drugs.
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