Thai police ‘ice’ move to smuggle 282kg of drugs

282kg of

BANGKOK: Thai police 'iced' a daring move by two Malaysians to use a road route to smuggle methampetamine (ice) into Malaysia when they seized a 282kg consignment at the Sadao Immigration Checkpoint on Wednesday.

The suspects, aged 37 and 59, and driving a Thai-registered Nissan Cefiro and a Proton were arrested at the checkpoint about 5pm, following information from the Malaysian police.

Each man was ferrying 175kg and 107kg of drugs, respectively, in the rear of their vehicles.

Thai Police Chief Pol Gen Chakhtip Chaijinda said the two arrests bring the total number of Malaysians detained for drug smuggling over the past week to 23.

On April 23 and 24, Thai police detained 21 Malaysians linked to a drug syndicate, at several locations in Thailand, seizing 226kg of 'ice' and eight kilogrammes of heroin.

The two Malaysian men were paraded during today's press conference at the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau here. Also present was Bukit Aman's Narcotics Director, Datuk Mokhtar Mohd Shariff.

According to Chakhtip, the seizures over the past week make up the largest drug haul by the Thai Police in recent years, and commended his men and the close cooperation with the Malaysian police for the resounding success.

Meawhile, Thai Police Deputy Chief, Pol Gen Pongsapat Pongcharoen said a folllow-up operation was underway to determine whether the seized drugs from the 23 Malaysians were sourced from the same 'factory' located in a neigbouring country.

"We will be conducting a laboratory test on whether the drugs came from the same factory, which just focused on producing pure 'ice' for the market. We suspect this drug factory to be a big one," he said Thursday.

He noted the packaging and the logos for the drugs from the separate seizures were quite similar.

The drugs seized from the 21 Malaysians last week were packaged in an 'instant coffee' and 'biscuit' packaging, while in yesterday's case, the drugs were contained in a 'tea leaf' packaging.

Thai Narcotics Police Chief Pol Lt Gen Rawat Klinkesan said the value of the drugs seized by the Thai police from the two Malaysians yesterday could fetch RM600 million, if sold outside Thailand or Malaysia.

He said the two men picked up the drugs from northeast Thailand, better known as 'Isan', at the Thai-Laos border and were assisted by local henchmen in transporting the drugs to the southern Thai bordertown of Sadao.

"The two men took a high risk in ferrying the illegal goods, using the road route," he added. - Bernama