Police said they seized 480,000 “yaba” pills – a methamphetamine drug – in four backpacks from the gang’s pickup truck following the 2.45am incident, which started at the checkpoint on Doi Tung-Huai Hong Khrai Road.

Deputy National Police chief General Chalermkiat Srivorakarn yesterday checked on the case at Mae Sai Police Station before presiding over a meeting of narcotics suppression operations within the Provincial Police Region 5 jurisdiction.

Down South, a former head of the Tambon Tam Ma Lang Administrative Organisation, Suwit Yoodee, 48, and his alleged accomplice, Chaiwuth Maneepruk, 31, were arrested in Satun’s Muang district over an allegation of trading in the herbal drug kratom.

The arrests stemmed from a pre-dawn sting operation yesterday, in which a supposed deal to buy 200 |kilograms of kratom for Bt80,000 had been made.

A police and Army team, led by deputy provincial governor Soradech Suntarachun also seized 11 sacks, or 185kg, of kratom leaves, which the suspects had allegedly imported from a neighbouring country for local distribution. Along with cannabis, kratom is a lower-level, Schedule 5 prohibited drug under the Thai Narcotics Act.

A clash on the banks of the Mekong River in Ubon Ratchathani’s Khemmarat district on Friday night between authorities and an alleged six-strong drug gang resulted to the arrest of one Laotian drug suspect and the seizure of over 200,000 yaba pills, it was announced at the police press conference yesterday.

The clash, which occurred about 10.30pm, resulted from police and soldiers searching six men on a boat that came from Laos to Thailand.

Following a gunfight that lasted about 30 minutes, five men escaped amid the darkness while one suspect, identified only as Tao Pon, was |wounded and captured.