Chiang Rai resident Chatree Sae-hur, 24, was arrested in possession of 5.88 million “yaba” pills and 20 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine known as “ice” on Highway No 1048 in Lampang’s Thoen district last Friday, but his accomplices escaped, said Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB)’s drugs interception centre commander |Pol Maj-General Tanai Apichatsanee.

The arrest stemmed from a tip-off that a group of Thai Hmong men would transport drugs from Chiang Rai into Central Thailand in a caravan of three pick-up trucks.

After the suspects refused to pull over, police chased the trucks, which separated. Eventually police seized the yaba pills being carried in a Ford pick-up and the ice in an Isuzu truck, but both drivers escaped into woods on foot.

Chatree, the driver of a Chevrolet truck that led the caravan, was arrested.

In another case, Natthapong Thongsuk, 21, Thiwakorn Panchandee, 23, and an unidentified 17-year-old male accomplice were arrested in possession of 279,760 yaba pills, 16.55kg of ice and 3.2kg of ketamine last Thursday in Bangkok. Police also seized three motorcycles.

Natthapong and the underage suspect were arrested in Chom Thong while Thiwakorn was apprehended in Rat Burana district.

The three allegedly worked for a drug-trafficking network led by a woman identified only as “Jeh Muey” that distributed drugs in Bangkok’s Thon Buri district and nearby provinces, according to NSB commander Pol Maj-General Wutthipong Phetchkamnerd.

In a third case, Metropolitan Police Area 8 commander Pol Maj-General Samrit Tongtao said police arrested Pramote Maibuakhieo, 25, Somchai Thongpradit, 52, and Saranya Moungchan, 23, in possession of 80kg of ice and 7.2kg of heroin at a house in Bangkok’s Klong Sam Wa district last Saturday.

The bust followed a previous arrest that uncovered the drug dealers’ modus operandi of receiving drugs from a bus driver from the North, storing the drugs at the house pending orders, and forwarding the contraband via similar delivery channels to distributors in the South.