Chiang Rai Police superintendent Pol Colonel Phoompanya Navatakulpisut said the arrest of the two uniformed men, who were trying to smuggle the drugs to Bangkok, occurred after police received information that there would be a major drug smuggling operation in the province.

After police inspected buses carrying passengers leaving the province, the two suspects, Sitthichai Saelee, 27, and Chakkarin Sae-wa, 24, were detained after police found more than 100,000 amphetamine pills in their luggage.

The suspects confessed that they had been hired by another man, identified only as “Por”, to smuggle the drugs to Bangkok, adding that they had smuggled drugs successfully once before. It was unclear whether the two were genuinely serving members of the military.

Both suspects were arrested on the charge of possessing amphetamines with the intent to sell while police continued to investigate the source of the drugs.