Anti-drug measures intensified in Thai Northeast

LOEI, THAILAND, March 13 (TNA) - Measures on the prevention and suppression against drug trafficking and trade have been intensified in all provinces in the Thai Northeast, following recent seizures of narcotics by local officers. Police Lieutenant General Surachai Kuandechakup, Chief of Provincial Police Region 4, told a press conference in the northeastern Loei Province on Tuesday that he has ordered the intensified measures in all provinces under his supervision, especially those locating along the northeastern Thai frontiers. Police Lieutenant General Surachai said he made the order in response to a rising trend of cross-border trafficking of large lots of drugs into northeastern Thai areas, including Loei and Nakhon Phanom Provinces. According to the provincial police chief, the rising trend is assumed that cross-border drug traffickers have changed their routes to northeastern Thai areas. At Tuesday's press conference, the provincial police chief also joined Commander of the 28th Military Circle Major General Charnchai Emon and Loei Governor Chaiwat Chuenkosum to announce the seizure of a latest large lot of about 6.4 million amphetamine pills and about 160 kilograms of cystal methamphetamine by a combined force of local police and soldiers a night earlier in Loei's Chiang Khan area. The authorities reported that the operation was launched while a suspicious car evaded a security checkpoint on the Chiang Khan-Pak Chom route, stating that the driver of the car managed to escape through the dark although his vehicle was stopped by the shooting at its tyres by the officers who are still tracking him down for legal action. (TNA)