Pubdate: Wed, 15 Mar 2000
Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2000
Contact:  http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/
Author: Anucha Charoenpo

RECORD HAUL OF 4 MILLION SPEED PILLS

Suspects Go To The Toilet And Vanish

A record 4,354,000 methamphetamine pills were seized in a search of
two containers of seafood in Prachuap Khiri Khan yesterday.

Police and livestock officials opened the containers at a Huay Yang
sub-district checkpoint in Thab Sakae district after examining the
papers of a Bangkok-bound pick-up truck they had pulled over.

The driver resisted requests for a search, offering the officials
3,000 baht to let him and his companion continue their journey from
Ranong to Klong Toey, Bangkok.

Pol Lt-Col Wanchai Matcharoen, an inspector of Huay Yang police, said
the bribe was turned down but the suspects escaped when they said they
were going to the toilet.

The inspector believed the drugs had been sent from northern Burma to
Kawthaung, opposite Ranong, because of stepped up suppression measures
along the northern border.

Pol Lt-Gen Noppadol Somboonsap, an assistant national police chief who
oversees illicit drugs policy, said investigators were looking into
signs that traffickers were now switching to the western border.
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