13m speed pills seized in Prachuap Khiri Khan

Highway police seized over 13 million methamphetamine pills and arrested two couriers in Bang Saphan district of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Monday.
The discovery was made when officers stopped a 22-wheel trailer truck with a Songkhla licence plate at a checkpoint at kilometre marker 378 of Phetkasem Road, police said at a briefing in Bangkok on Tuesday.
During a search, police found speed pills parcelled up, hidden in many plastic baskets and covered by a canvas tarpaulin in the back of the truck.
Arrested were the driver, identified as Amorn Thongchuchuay, 51, and his companion, Weerapong Kongkaew, 39.
Police said the pair admitted that they had picked up the drugs from Sai Noi district in Nonthaburi province and were to deliver them to Thung Song in Nakhon Si Thammarat, where the pills would be smuggled out of the kingdom.
The suspects said they earned 200,000 baht for transporting the drugs, and this was the second time they had done the job, according to police.
The 13.1 million pills were had a street value of about one billion baht, said Pol Maj Gen Kongkrit Lertsitthikun, commander of the Highway Police Division.
The traffickers took advantage of the fact that many police officers had been deployed for flood relief in northern Thailand, Pol Maj Gen Kongkrit said. The investigation into the drug network would continue, he added.
From October 2023 to August 2024, highway police arrested 1,569 suspects in drug cases and seized about 100 million methamphetamine pills, 568 kilogrammes of ketamine, 471kg of crystal meth and 127kg of heroin, police said.