Police seized huge drug hauls at borders during first quarter

The foot soldiers in Thailand’s war against narcotics trafficking won some major battles during the first three months of the year, as Border Patrol Police intercepted over 60 million amphetamine pills and other drugs, preventing them from entering Thailand and being smuggled on to other countries.
Thailand has worked hard to turn the tide on a flood of amphetamines and other drugs that created a significant number of addicts in past years and caused social disruption. Produces and traffickers in some neighboring countries target Thailand as both a market and transshipment point for their illegal narcotics.

Some of those narcotics make their way to Western countries. Thailand and the United States are allies and cooperate on a wide range of security issues, among them fighting transnational criminal syndicates engaged in the trafficking of narcotics, people, wildlife, and arms.

Thailand’s Border Patrol Police are on the front lines of the Kingdom’s war on drugs. Scores of police have lost their lives or been wounded in shootouts with traffickers in recent years. Even rosewood poachers from neighboring countries are often armed and willing to use violence to evade capture.

Pol Maj Gen Sunthorn Chalermkiat, deputy commissioner of the Border Patrol Police said anti-drug efforts were becoming more effective because of closer cooperation with other units of the police and government agencies such as the Crime Suppression Division and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

He said his men would soon receive training from the Central Investigation Bureau and Metropolitan Police Bureau and these trained personnel would help widen probes into drug suspects and syndicates.

In the past, drug suspects captured by his units were usually handed over to drug suppression officers or the Office of the Narcotics Control Board for further investigation.