BANGKOK, Feb 9 – Thai authorities have arrested drug trafficking suspects in the South with methamphetamine pills and heroin worth more than Bt40 million.
The five suspects are from the “Mayakee” syndicate that eerlier hid Bt 30 million in pipes in a Narathiwat rubber plantation in 2007.
Five men — Natthapong Khaosawee, Prasong Taksinla, Rungrachanee Phetcharak, Sudeng Sama-ae, and Muhammadsa-largest Tale — were arrested with 13 kilograms of heroin bars and over 66,000 meth pills altogether worth Bt 40 million at a checkpoint in a Songkhla village, Ban Khuan Meed, in Chana district.
The narcotics were hidden under coconuts in the cargo bed of their pickup truck.
The traffickers said that they had received the drugs from the North and the heroin was destined for Malaysia where its price would soar by as much as 10 times to over Bt400 million.
The speed pills would be retailed in three southern border provinces with part of the earnings earmarked to sponsor southern insurgents.
Among the arrested traffickers, Mr Sudeng is a follower of southern drug kingpin Mayakee Yako who was active in the three southern border provinces and is now jailed in Khao Bin prison in Ratchaburi province.
The authorities found Bt30 million in cash in PVC pipes buried in the compound of his home in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district in 2007.
