1.5 MILLION PILLS SEIZED IN RAIDS

CHIANG RAI More than 1.5 million methamphetamine pills and three kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, or ‘‘ya ice’’, with an estimated street value of more than 400 million baht, were seized in two separate police drug operations yesterday.

After police stopped a pickup truck in Ban Phahee in tambon Pongngam in Mae Sai district, driver Warayuth Yomsi, 36, was arrested when 1.2 million speed pills were found in his vehicle.

Mr Warayuth allegedly told police that he had been hired for 300,000 baht to deliver the drugs to Bang Bua Thong district in Nonthaburi.

Later, at a border crossing in Bang Wiang Phang Kham in tambon Wiang Phang Kham in the same district, police apprehended Sompong Yisaeng, 25, and seized 320,000 speed pills and 3kg of ya ice from his car.

Office of the Narcotics Control Board secretary-general Pongsapat Pongcharoen said a network of drug traffickers in Bang Bua Thong district in Nonthaburi had arranged for the drugs to be delivered.

Pol Gen Pongsapat said the Bang Bua Thong network bought the drugs from a warlord, Lt Col Yi Se, leader of an armed Muser group, which has a drug production base in Tachileik, a border town opposite Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district.

The speed pills would sell for 300 baht each on the streets of Bangkok, Pol Gen Pongsapat said.