Thai police intercept another drugs consignment bound for Hatyai

Two men driving a concrete mixer trailer stuffed with 2.2 million 'Yaba' (Crazy) Methamphetamine pills were apprehended last Saturday en route to Hatyai, southern Thailand, to deliver the illegal consignment.

Both the men, who were arrested in Chumphon Province, refused to divulge any information on the drugs intended destination after reaching Hatyai, but Thai authorities believe the drugs would eventually be smuggled across the border and end up in Malaysia.

"The two suspects refused to tell us if the drugs were supposed to be smuggled into Malaysia after reaching Hatyai, but based on the trafficking route, it was heading to Malaysia," the police commander of Southern Region 8, Lt Gen Thesa Siriwatho, said to Bernama today.

The two men, aged 48 and 32, he said, picked up the drugs from Fang District, Chiangmai, in northern Thailand and were promised payment of 500,000 Baht (about RM60,000) to deliver the consignment to unidentified men in Hatyai.

The success came just days after Thai authorities intercepted another lorry laden with 1.1 tonnes of ganja and 1.2 million 'Yaba' pills at Banmor district, Saraburi province, while it was heading to Hatyai, with the similar intention of smuggling the drugs into Malaysia later on.

Four men, one of them a former policeman, were arrested in the sting operation, with Thai authorities saying the drugs would probably be re-exported to a third country from Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Siriwatho said the concrete mixer trailer driven by the two men was stopped at a checkpoint in Chumphon and was escorted to a nearby petrol station for further inspection after the authorities sensed something amiss about the vehicle and its occupants.

"The officers were suspicious as the trailer was driven so far from Chiangmai to Hatyai," he said, adding that after further questioning, the men revealed the existence of 22 bags containing the drugs drugs hidden with some cement powder inside the concrete mixer of the trailer.

Fang District is a remote district in Chiangmai, near the Myanmar border, located thousands of kilometres from Hatyai.

The two men, he said, confessed to having conducted similar trips transporting consignments of drugs from northern Thailand to southern Thailand.

"This is not their first time and, in fact, they have lost count of the many trips they had made before this," Siriwatho said, adding that the men had already been paid 50,000 Baht (about RM6,000) and would have received the rest of the payment after reaching Hatyai.

-- BERNAMA