CHIANG RAI: Authorities say a new drug production gang may be emerging along the countrys northern border, following the seizure of 1.7 million methamphetamine pills.<\/p>\n
Soldiers display seized speed pills during a media briefing in Chiang Rai yesterday (Jan 25). Three men are in custody. Photo: Chinnapat Chaimol<\/p>\n
The packages containing the ya ba pills bore an eagle logo, which law enforcement officials have not seen before, according to Col Chatree Sa-nguantham of the Pha Muang task force.<\/p>\n
Three young men were arrested in an operation carried out by soldiers from the task force in Muang district of Chiang Rai on Friday (Jan 24) night.<\/p>\n
The soldiers were deployed to the Nong Bua reservoir in tambon Bandu at around 10:30pm on Friday following a tip-off that illicit drugs were going to be smuggled from the border area in Mae Sai district to an area near the reservoir.<\/p>\n
They later spotted a white Toyota Innova with Bangkok licence plates parked near the reservoir, with three men standing nearby. The soldiers asked to conduct a search and found 13 sacks inside.<\/p>\n
The sacks contained 1.7 million speed pills and the three men were arrested, Col Chatree said yesterday (Jan 25).<\/p>\n
The suspects were identified as Apirak Homros, 26, of Sankhaburi district in Chai Nat; Takeshi Shinoda, 23, of Mae Taeng district in Chiang Mai; and Sarawut Jariyakitwanchai, 26, of Wiang Chai district in Chiang Rai. The trio were handed over to the Bandu police station for legal action.<\/p>\n
Col Chatree said one of the suspects was a Thai-Japanese national as his father was a Japanese.<\/p>\n
Wa State in Myanmar has long been known as a key methamphetamine producing area in Southeast Asia. It is the hub of an ever-expanding production and export enterprise that is now finding more markets beyond Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Ample supplies have worsened the regional methamphetamine epidemic, as it now costs as little as 40 baht to buy a ya ba pill in Bangkok. Thats down from 200-300 baht a few years ago, and is about the same price as when former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched his bloody war on drugs in 2003.<\/p>\n
The scale of the problem in Thailand alone is enormous. The number of methamphetamine tablets seized in 2018 in the country - 515 million - exceeded the combined seizures reported from all countries in the region in any preceding year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).<\/p>\n
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New ya ba 'brand' detected in North - The Phuket News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CHIANG RAI: Authorities say a new drug production gang may be emerging along the countrys northern border, following the seizure of 1.7 million methamphetamine pills. Continue reading