Police seize huge haul of ‘ice’, arrest 7 in Songkhla crackdown

Pol Maj-General Pornsak Surasit, commander of Narcotics Suppression Division 4, announced the raid at a press conference on Monday.

He said it is believed that the shipment was heading to Malaysia to be further shipped to Australia, where it would have fetched over 600 million baht.

The seven suspects arrested were identified as Lukman Cheduramae, 40; Wanida Asae, 41; Waemae Lomae; 38, Daki Mueli, 38; Alading Dingpo, 33; Mapaosi Salae, 24; and Nakarin Salae, 34. Six were from Narathiwat, while Wanida – the only woman – was from Pattani.

Pornsak said his team learned of the gang’s planned movements after a suspect was caught with 402,000 methamphetamine pills in Songkhla’s Rattaphum district on Friday night.

He said police had been monitoring the group until they received a tip-off on Friday that the group was planning to ship the haul to the deep South.

In the early hours of Saturday, police spotted two vehicles heading towards a highway police checkpoint in Ratthaphum district’s Khuha Tai area. Police also spotted a third vehicle trailing behind and stopped apparently to see the situation of the two other vehicles at the checkpoint.

Officers then searched the three vehicles, one of which was a pick-up truck, and found the drugs hidden in 14 bags. The seven suspects, including three drivers, reportedly said they picked up the shipment from Nakhon Pathom’s Bang Len district and were delivering it to a contact in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district.

Pornsak said all seven were charged with illegal possession of illicit drugs with the intent to sell.

Police have impounded the three vehicles along with a plot of land with a house worth a total of about 5.1 million baht to find out if they were bought from the proceeds of drug trafficking.

Pornsak said the gang chose to smuggle the drugs by road after learning that security checks at airports and piers had been stepped up.