Thai police nab drug gangs

BANGKOK, January 13 (TNA) - Thai police have arrested seven suspects of two large drug networks and seized a large amount of narcotics, including over 650,000 methamphetamine pills and more than 1,000 kilogrammes of marijuana sticks. National Police Chief Police General Chakthip Chaijinda and and Narcotics Suppression Chief Police Lieutenant General Rewat Klinkaset held a joint press conference to announce the operations on January 13. In the first case, authorities nabbed three hilltribes suspected to have smuggled narcotics into Thailand from neighbouring countries and involved in trading of war weapons and other illegal items while they arrived at a hut in Mae Tang District of Chiang Mai Province in the Thai North, where they kept the drugs and the illegal items. The authorities said one of the suspects was killed during an exchange of shooting between police officers and the suspects, while three other suspects were apprehended and one of them managed to escape. The police officers also seized 652,000 pills of methamphetamine, 1.6 kilogrammes of raw opium, two guns and ammunition during the operation. In the second case, the police arrested three suspects and seized two kilogrammes of meth ice and 1,119 marijuana sticks, weighing 1,100 kilogrammes totally. The suspects had hidden the narcotics inside a truck to be delivered to a client in Pathum Thani Province, next to Bangkok. Thai authorities are coordinating with their counterparts in a neighbouring country to help track down the head of the second drug network to be prosecuted in Thailand. (TNA)