Khon Kaen highway police seize 1,095kg of marijuana
Highway police in Khon Kaen seized 1,095 kilograms of marijuana from an abandoned pickup truck in Nam Phong district early on Monday.
No one was arrested because the truck driver apparently fled the scene and left the truck on the roadside following a police chase shortly after 4.30am.
The chase came after highway police stopped a pickup at a road checkpoint. They did not find anything illegal in the vehicle after carrying out a search.
However, after the truck was driven about 200 metres from the checkpoint, it stopped and the passenger was seen making a phone call.
Police suspected that the man was alerting another truck about the checkpoint.
A team of highway patrol police officers was immediately dispatched to check the Mittraparp Road ahead of the checkpoint, and they spotted another pickup at a petrol station.
When they tried to search it, it sped off and made a U-turn, with the police in hot pursuit by car.
The truck was later found abandoned on the roadside, with 1,095kg of neatly packaged marijuana inside.
Pol Colonel Apichart Phothichan, commander of Khon Kaen highway police division 4, said the owner of the seized pickup would be summoned soon for questioning.