Five drug suspects shot dead in Chiang Rai

By Natthawat Laping 
The Nation

 

 

Soldiers in Chiang Rai killed five suspected drug traffickers near the Myanmar border on Saturday evening and seized 720,000 “yaba” (methamphetamine) pills, deputy commander of the Thai 3rd army region, Major General Bancha Suriyapan said on Sunday.

 

Alerted that a drug shipment was on the way, the troops staked out an area in Tambon Winga Phang Kham, Mae Sai district. 

 

They saw seven armed men, each wearing a backpack, walking in Doi Nang Non Forest near the village of Pha Mee (Moo 6), less than a kilometre from the border. 

 

When confronted, the men opened fire. 

 

The exchange of fire ended after 15 minutes but the soldiers held back until the following morning as a precaution. 

 

Daylight on Sunday revealed five dead bodies whose backpacks and three other sacks together contained 720,000 meth pills.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30359249

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-11-26

4 hours ago, car720 said:

Sounds more like an ambush to me.

The soldiers staked out an area. That's pretty much an ambush by definition. Regardless, they only killed scum drug pushers so it's no big deal.

 

The drug thing has to end, one way or another. You can't kill them all. There will always be another poor guy waiting for the opportunity to make a few baht. Either legalize it completely and take away the criminal element or arrest the guys who are truly behind it all. But they're way to high up and protected aren't they?

Well done.

Next !

Whatever your thoughts, some Thai or Burmese Hill Tribe village has probably just lost its "breadwinners". I hope it is a lesson to others.

without so much as a, ''by your leave''

3 hours ago, car720 said:

Declare total war on the pusher man.

However, these guys are not the pushers.  They are just poor villagers usually that have been paid a lot of money to carry it on  their backs.

A lot of money for them, perhaps. But in the bigger picture they are paid pi$$ all.

I live right on the border near villages that have been involved in the drug business and several months ago the army conducted something just like this and 5 died. The gunfire at first daylight was in fact what woke me up. My wife was making coffee for the army seniors who had blocked off the village roads and one officer admitted to her that there was no plan to arrest these people especially in they were not Thai. He suggested it was just too much of a political, judicial nightmare. The report that made the news never matched up to what we heard at the scene but my neighbours didn't seem at all worried.

A weekly occurrence around these parts.

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