Child as drug mule

THAI police have found a seven- year- old boy from Myanmar (Burma) crying alone at a bus stop in western Thailand with almost 10,000 methamphetamine pills in his backpack.

The child was discovered on Thursday evening in the Thong Pha Phum district of Kanchanaburi province near the border with Myanmar.

‘‘Officers approached him and asked him questions, but he could not speak Thai,’’ said district police chief Colonel Amnuay Pongsawat.

He said the drugs were found in about 50 plastic bags wedged into two baby powder bottles.

‘‘It is the first time that we have seen drug trafficking gangs use a child as a courier,’’ Colonel Amnuay said.

He said he believed the boy had been dropped off by an uncle. The United Nations sounded the alarm this month over record seizures of methamphetamine in parts of Asia.

In its pill form, known in Thailand as ‘‘yaba’’, which means ‘‘crazy medicine’’, the narcotic is used both as a party drug and pick-me-up for low-paid workers with long hours.

Thai authorities netted 95.3 million pills last year, a 93 per cent increase on 2011, with most thought to have been produced in Myanmar.