Authorities have seized 6 million speed pills from a pickup truck abandoned by a drug gang following a chase in Mae Chan district of Chiang Rai.
Soldiers from the Pha Muang task force and local police were deployed to monitor routes in Mae Chan on Thursday afternoon after receiving information that large quantities of illicit drugs would be smuggled from the Thai-Myanmar border area via Mae Fa Luang district of the northern province.
Around 3am Friday, they spotted a suspected pickup truck with Chiang Mai licence plates travelling along the route towards Mae Chan.
The officers signalled the vehicle to stop but the driver sped off. Soldiers and police gave chase and eventually found the pickup abandoned in Huai Nam Rak village of tambon Chanchawa.
The officers searched the vehicle and found 30 fertiliser sacks, each containing 200,000 speed pills, or 6 million pills in total.
Late Thursday evening, officers manning a road checkpoint in tambon Lai Ngao of Wiang Kaen district spotted a suspicious Nissan car with Chiang Rai plates. They signalled the vehicle to stop but the driver sped off.
The police then gave chase and found the car abandoned near the Chaempong border checkpoint in the northern district. However, no illicit items were found inside the vehicle, which was believed to have been used for drug smuggling.
