Drug smugglers lose marijuana, meth but escape Mekong net
More than 400 kilograms of marijuana and 3,577 methamphetamine pills were seized at two locations on the Thai bank of the Mekong River in Bueng Kan early Wednesday, though no arrests were made.
Bueng Kan Governor Pisut Busayaphanpong showed off the haul at a press conference that evening, lauding the joint force of police, rangers and Navy officers that netted the drugs.
He said police were tipped off that traffickers would be smuggling drugs across the Mekong to the village of Ban Nong Dern Tha in Tambon Nong Dern, Boongkla district.
The joint team staked out the area for about an hour, but saw no one. A search turned up the cache of methamphetamine.
Another informant then told the team that drugs were at that moment being hauled across the river near Nong Dern Tha-Boongkla Nua Road.
They arrived in time to see a boat carrying the presumed smugglers speeding back across to the Lao side.
The gang had abandoned 10 bags in a field containing 412 one-kilogram bricks of marijuana.
