17 Kilos Of Heroin And Opium Extract Seized In Chiang Mai

A Thai soldier removes opium poppies from a hilly area of Tak province during an annual search and destroy opium eradication operation, 450km north of Bangkok. Anti-narcotics officials say that the opium growing area in Thailand, mainly in the upper land bordering Myanmar, have shrunk by six folds to 360 acres this year from five years ago. But the production yield did not fall as fast because growers had increased their productivity through a better irrigation system. January 23, 2007

REUTERS

A Thai soldier displays opium poppies at a hilly area of Tak province during an annual search and destroy opium eradication operation, 450 km north of Bangkok. January 23, 2007

REUTERS

Kilos of heroin, opium seized

Nearly 17 kilogrammes of heroin and raw opium extract were seized by a joint police and military task force in Chiang Mai yesterday. Officers seized the 9.4kg of refined heroin and 7.5kg of raw opium extract from two men and a woman after they were stopped and searched in their car on the main road from Fang district to Chiang Mai provincial town. The three were stopped and searched at a checkpoint at about 4.30am. The officers found 27 bags of high-grade, No. 4 heroin hidden inside the car's air bag and the raw opium extract behind the driver's seat, said Janya Saramatcha, Region 5 director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

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