Police seize 11m of Porlee’s meth pills

Police have seized 11 million methamphetamine pills from three pickup trucks abandoned by fleeing smugglers in Muang and Chiang Khong districts of this northernmost province.

The drugs were said to belong to a major smuggling network run by a fugitive trafficker known as “Porlee”.

Pol Lt Gen Piya Tawichai, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5, and senior police yesterday announced the seizure of the drugs in two operations in Chiang Rai province.

Pol Lt Gen Piya gave details of the drug seizures.

Drug suppression police from Provincial Police Region 5 and Chiang Rai police followed two suspected pickup trucks travelling from a border area in Mae Suai to downtown Muang district around 11pm on May 19.

The vehicles were parked at Hua Doi intersection in tambon Tha Sai of Muang district. When police approached, the drivers fled into the darkness.

The officers found and seized four million meth pills from the two vehicles. Mobile phones and some documents were also left inside the cabins.

On May 25, police from region 5 working with local officers signalled two vehicles, a white pickup truck and a grey pickup with Tak licence plates, to stop for a search at a checkpoint in Chiang Khong district around 12.10am.

The vehicles instead accelerated away and police gave chase.

The grey pickup was intercepted on a road in Hua Wiang village in tambon Wiang of Chiang Khong district. The driver fled, abandoning the vehicle.

When police removed a tarpaulin covering the back they found 35 sacks, each containing 200,000 meth pills, or around 7 million in total.

Investigators said the drugs seized in both cases were from the trafficking network run by Boonchai Saemua, alias Porlee, who has fled the country, according to police.

Meanwhile, another two million methamphetamine pills were found in a car that crashed into a roadside tree while fleeing police pursuit vehicles, in Tha Sae district of Chumphon province in the South on Thursday night.

Police arrested Ittipan Chanduang, 24, and Phanuwat Panlamjiak, 23, both Sa Kaeo residents, and seized 2 million meth pills in sacks in the car’s boot, Pol Lt Gen Sarayut Sanguanphokhai, chief of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), said yesterday.

Pol Lt Gen Sarayut said before the pair crashed their car they had been signalled by police to stop at a checkpoint.

Instead, the driver accelerated away, and the police gave chase until the driver lost control of his vehicle on the wet road.