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Some 1.86 million methamphetamine tablets worth almost Bt500 million have been seized in an arrest in Uthai Thani.
The drug seizure and arrest of a Thai man at a checkpoint in Uthai Thani's Muang district on Friday night led to arrests of two more suspects yesterday in Bangkok and Ayutthaya, along with a kilogram of crystal meth.

As part of a big crackdown on drugs by police ahead of HM the King's birthday, checkpoints were set up all over country. One checkpoint on Uthai Thani-Krok Phra Road late on Friday found an Isuzu pickup carrying 1.86 million ya ba tablets.

The driver, Thanakorn Phad-thaisong, 29, was also caught with a pistol, ammunition and Bt226,830 in cash. He reportedly confessed to transporting the pills for a Bt100,000 payment.

On instructions from Police Region 6 chief Lt-General Ajin Chotiwong to arrest accomplices, police conducted a sting by getting the driver to go to drug delivery points in Bangkok and Ayutthaya.

At 4am yesterday, police arrested one suspect, Jakkarin Daosuk, 30, as well as seizing a kilogram of crystal meth worth Bt3 million, a pickup truck, a pistol and a shotgun. One more suspect, Wirat Wongrangrong, 25, was arrested along with a motorcycle and a 9mm pistol at 8.30am.

In a separate development, Border Patrol Police in Songkhla yesterday confiscated 500 kilograms of compressed marijuana worth more than Bt10 million in a sting that also nabbed suspected dealer Ron Wongroman, 63.

The man was first arrested in possession of 50 kg of marijuana he was handing to police who posed as buyers. A subsequent search of his house in Songkhla discovered 450 more kilograms of the illicit drug. Police said the marijuana was smuggled from Laos for users in the deep South and possible smuggling to Malaysia.
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