BangkokPost-Aug 1
The Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) is stepping up its vigilance for drug smuggling by post as crime syndicates diversify their distribution methods to outsmart officials and move illicit narcotics across the country. In a special interview with the Bangkok Post, the ONCB’s deputy secretary-general, Piyasiri Wattanavarangkul, said drug smugglers are increasingly using postal services as their preferred option to evade authorities’ detection. As a result, the frequency of smuggling and amounts of narcotics seized are on the rise, he said. Between October last year and June this year, authorities arrested 12 suspects involved in large-scale drug trafficking and confiscated more than 2.76 million methamphetamine pills, 3.5 kilograms of crystal meth, known as ya ice, and more than 3,000 kilograms of cannabis, he said. Mr Piyasiri said that traffickers have changed the way they smuggle drugs. “Drugs are hidden in postal packages and delivered [to cities] from local post offices in remote rural areas in northernmost provinces,” he said. Hmong hill tribespeople living along the border in the North package narcotics as harmless consignments and have them delivered by private delivery companies. “Often, Bangkok and the four southern border provinces — Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songkhla are the final destinations,” Mr Piyasiri said. “Some 2.5 million speed pills were found recently to have been sent from Chiang Rai’s Mae Fa Luang district and Chiang Mai’s Chiang Dao district to Pattani and Songkla,” he said. “Mae Fa Luang and Mae Sai districts in Chiang Rai border a known drug production base in a neighboring country,” he said. Read more at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2358299/its-in-the-mail-cartels-change-tack
