Over 539,000 Yabaa Pills Confiscated Over The New Year Holidays

[ChiangMaiMail]

Over 539,000 yabaa pills confiscated over the New Year holidays

3 drug traffickers were arrested by the Pha Muang Task Force with 100,000 yabaa pills, 15 packages of raw opium weighing 20 kgs, a .38 with 55 rounds of ammunition, and a grenade at Ban Rin Luang checkpoint in Chiang Dao District on January 3, 2009.

By Supoj Thiamyoj

Muensae Mouka, 26, a resident of Mae Ai, Chiang Mai, was arrested by the 334th Border Patrol Police (BPP) operations as he drove past the the police check-point at Ban Pa Low – Ban Cha Na in Mae Ai. The police were alerted by his suspicious behavior and stopped him for a search. The search revealed 10,000 yabaa pills and 30 grams of raw opium.

Muesae confessed to police that he had been hired by Pai Kha U to smuggle the drugs from Myanmar over the border into Mae Ai and then deliver to a drug buyer at Ban Pong Hi. He was taken to Mae Ai Police station to be charged with drug smuggling and for further questioning.

Acting on a tip off received over the New Year holiday that large numbers of drugs were expected to be smuggled over the border, the Pha Muang Task Force, in a joint operation with the Office of Narcotics Control Board, patrolled the area around Chiang Dao. Two Lahu tribesmen from Chiang Dao and a Burmese man were caught with 100,000 speed pills, 20kg of raw opium, a .38 revolver, 55 rounds of ammunition and a grenade were arrested at a police checkpoint in Ban Rin Luang, Chiang Dao District after engaging in a gun battle.

Maj Gen Prakarn Cholayuth, Commander of the Pha Muang Task Force, and Pornthep Aimprapai, the director of ONCB, region 5, reported that the members of the Task Force were patrolling the area around Ban Rin Luang on January 2 when they encountered three men carrying bags, when the police stopped them to open the bags, the men opened fire and tossed a grenade which failed to detonate. The Task Force members managed to overcome the three men and arrest them for assault and drug trafficking.

The next day, on January 4, the Pha Muang Task Force seized nearly a half a million yabaa pills in a road block near Fang.

In this incident, the Special Unit of Cavalry Regiment 4 under supervision of Pha Muang Task Force found 4 men crossing over the border from Myanmar carrying backpacks at Ban Pangtong in Fang district of Chiang Mai. When called out to stop and be searched, the men dropped their backpacks and fled back over the border into Myanmar. The backpacks were found to contain 400,000 yabaa pills.

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-- Chiang Mai Mail 2010/01/12

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