POLICE are moving to arrest other members of a marijuana trafficking gang after two of them, both Myanmar nationals, were arrested at Mae Sot border town in possession of two lots of the drug totaling 360 kilogrammes which was being taken across the border to the neighbouring country, Thai Rath newspaper reported today (October 6, 2020).
The 360kgs of marijuana would have fetched over 10 million baht overseas.
The first lot of marijuana, totaling 216kgs, was seized at a checkpoint set up by the police and 4th Infantry Task Force soldiers near the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge. The team was inspecting small vehicles that had come across the border to collect goods but had not passed through the vehicle X-ray scanner.
A Myanmar-registered van looked suspicious and when the unit searched it they found a red box which was labeled as containing engine oil. However the Myanmar driver, Mr. Maung Mowin, 35, said it held frozen chicken. A check revealed that the box contained 136 slabs of marijuana, weighing 144kgs.
Upon being questioned the Myanmar man pointed to a house in Mae Sot as being the source of the drug. The police and military team then raided this house where they found 216kgs of marijuana, taking the total to 360kgs, and arrested Ms. Sotiso (no surname), 28.
Sotiso told the team that she had bought the marijuana from a dealer in Ubon Ratchathani province and gradually sent the drug across the border to merchants in Myawaddy and had done this many times already but never got caught.
Mae Sot police have alerted the Office of the Narcotics Control Board in the Northeast to track down the source of the drug and round up other members of this trafficking gang.
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The police and military team announcing the seizure of the large amount of marijuana in Mae Sot this morning. Photos: Thai Rath
