2023-12-18 08:08:02
BANGKOK (AP) — Fifteen suspected drug traffickers were killed and about 2 million methamphetamine pills were confiscated in northern Thailand near the Myanmar border after a shootout with Thai soldiers, Thai authorities said.
The incident, which occurred on Saturday night, occurred after the local army received a tip that there would be smuggling activity near the border in Chiang Rai province, said Phanurat Lukboon, acting secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.
Authorities found a group of about 20 people with backpacks in the area, Phanurat said Sunday. When the soldiers identified themselves and asked to inspect the bags, the group began shooting at them, he added.
The clash lasted about 15 minutes and all the Thai soldiers were unharmed, Phanurat said during a visit to the scene. He thanked the military for their help in “stopping these horrible things from entering our country and destroying our youth.”
The alleged smugglers carried seventeen backpacks made from fertilizer bags that contained more than two million methamphetamine pills, according to authorities.
No arrests were made and authorities were still working to identify the 15 people killed in the incident and the source of the drugs, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.
Thailand announced Wednesday that it had seized 50 million methamphetamine pills in the western province of Kanchanaburi, also near the Myanmar border. It was presented as a record stash of that drug in the country.
Myanmar is traditionally the main drug production area in Southeast Asia due in part to lax security measures in border areas, where ethnic minorities have long fought for more autonomy. Some of the powerful armed ethnic groups have been heavily involved in the production of narcotics for decades.
A military coup in Myanmar in 2021 that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi triggered an armed resistance movement across the country, further destabilizing the nation and contributing to a surge in its drug production.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said last week in its 2023 Study on Opium in Southeast Asia that Myanmar has overtaken Afghanistan to become the world’s largest opium producer.
The United Nations agency’s June 2023 report on synthetic drugs in East and Southeast Asia warned that the huge trade in methamphetamines and other illegal drugs showed no signs of abating.
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