Thailand’s acting national police chief Kittharath Punpetch (second from left) and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (right) reacting during a press conference where the seized drugs were displayed. - PHOTO: EPA-EFE via The Straits Times/ANN
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai authorities intercepted a tonne of crystal methamphetamine in one of the kingdom's biggest ever single seizures of the illegal drug, police said on Sunday night.
The haul, with an estimated value of more than $25 million on the international market, was found when officers stopped a pickup truck in central Nakhon Nayok province on Friday.
Acting National Police Chief Kittharath Punpetch said police, military and local officials had been monitoring several smuggling gangs and learned of a plan to move a large amount of the drug, commonly known by the street name "ice".
Kittharath told a news conference that 40 bags of the drug, weighing a tonne in total, were found in the truck.
Its driver was arrested but investigators believe the head of the smuggling network is a Thai national based in a neighbouring country.
The kingdom is a major transit route for illicit drugs produced in the so-called "Golden Triangle" region where northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.
Myanmar is a major source of amphetamine, much of it produced in illegal labs in border areas controlled by ethnic minority armed groups. - AFP
