PUBLISHED : 13 Dec 2023 at 11:05
KANCHANABURI: Police arrested a married couple and seized 50 million methamphetamine pills from their six-wheel truck in Thong Pha Phum district on Tuesday – the largest drug seizure ever made in this western border province.
A team of local and narcotics suppression police, soldiers and local officials found the drugs hidden under sacks containing used plastic bottles, scrap metal and other waste at Thong Pha Phum intersection in tambon Tha Khanun around 3.30pm on Tuesday.
They then arrested the vehicle’s two occupants, Pitiphan Nomsungnoen, 30, and his wife Pornsiri Khongnandee, 24, who were taken to Thong Pha Phum police station.
On Wednesday morning, a team of police and soldiers led by Pol Col Paithoon Sriwilai, chief of Sangkhla Buri district, searched a house at Phra Chedi Sam-ong village Moo 9 in tambon Nong Lu as the investigation was expanded.
A man and a woman, said to be friends of the arrested husband, Mr Pitiphan, were in the house.
The house had a back door leading to the Myanmar border, like other houses in the border village. The man found at the house tested positive for drug use. The couple were held in police custody.
Police investigators said the man had driven the motorcycle that met Mr Pitiphan when he returned from Myanmar. He took him to where the truck, loaded with 50 million speed pills, was parked.
Mr Pitiphan then drove the truck away, according to police. It was stopped in Thong Pha Phum district, where a search uncovered the drugs.
Police said it was the largest drug bust ever in the border province.
Police search a house and grounds in Sangkhla Buri district of Kanchanaburi on Wednesday morning, following the seizure of a record 50 million meth pills from a truck stopped in Thong Pha Phum district of the same province. (Photo: Piyarat Chongcharoen)