A drug smuggler was killed in a shootout with police yesterday following a car chase after a pickup drove through a checkpoint in Mae Tha district of Lamphun province.
Police said a total of 1.2 million methamphetamine tablets, or ya ba, were seized from the vehicle. The drugs are worth more than 800 million baht.
Pol Maj Gen Chamnarn said the gang was part of a Hmong network involved in smuggling drugs over the border in Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, with the final destination in the Central region.
Police posing as drug buyers say they ordered 30 speed pills from Tong Tamdee, 35, and his wife, Orasa Penkol, 22. They learned the couple were involved in the drug trade in Muang district. The coupleout of work, were arrested in a rice field where they delivered the drugs, police said.