Northern couple behind smuggling of tonne of ‘ice’
The six-wheel truck impounded in Surat Thani province after police found more than one tonne of crystal meth in bags concealed beneath a cargo of cow dung last Saturday. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)
CHIANG RAI: Police arrested a couple on Wednesday for overseeing the smuggling of more than one tonne of crystal meth, or “ice”, from the North to southern Thailand.
The 48-year-old man and his wife, 31, were apprehended at their home in Mae Chan district of Chiang Rai.
Police accuse them of arranging and supervising the transport of 1,199 kilogrammes of crystal meth to the South for smuggling to a third country.
A source said that investigators found that the couple, whose names have not been released, were at a condominium in Lat Phrao area of Bangkok overseeing the transport of drugs seized in the southern province of Surat Thani last Saturday.
The drugs were concealed in the cargo of a six-wheeled truck stopped on south-bound Highway 41 in tambon Nong Sai of Surat Thani’s Phun Phin district. There were 30 sacks of crystal meth covered with sacks of cow dung on the back of the blue Isuzu truck registered in Trang province.
Three men were arrested.
The source said the “ice” was smuggled from Laos and destined for a buyer in Malaysia. The arrested woman had arranged for several transits of 170-1,000kg at a time, and paid her courier squad about 500,000 baht per trip.