Thai police seize drugs worth $11m in one of nation’s largest drug hauls

BANGKOK – Thai anti-narcotics police seized over US$8 million (S$11 million) worth of drugs in one of the largest single hauls in the kingdom’s history, officers said on Thursday.

The so-called Golden Triangle is where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet has long been a hot spot for drug smuggling, particularly of methamphetamine, despite repeated crackdowns.

Officers raided a building in central Nakhon Pathom city late on Wednesday night, detaining four men at the premises and uncovering a huge stash.

“This is one of the largest amounts of drugs ever confiscated,” said newly appointed National Police chief Torsak Sukwimol.

He told reporters officers found roughly 15 million “yaba” pills – methamphetamine tablets that are produced and used across the region.

In 2022, police seized around 540 million such pills in total, more than double that seized in 2017, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

General Torsak said the haul also included around 400kg of crystal meth and nearly 450 bars of heroin.

Officers said the huge stash, which was brought across Thailand’s porous northern borders, was being temporarily stored by the group before being shifted onto smaller traffickers.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on them for two years, and we have been trying to find this safe house,” said Gen Torsak.

“They switched their safe house to here, and we’d been looking for this place for a long time,” he said. AFP