Drug runner arrested with 291kg of meth and pistol at petrol station

A drug runner was arrested with 291 kilogrammes of crystal meth and a pistol at a petrol station in Bangkok, Thailand.

Samrit Taeng-on, 38, was moving the large shipment towards southern Thailand when police tracked down his white Toyota Revo pickup at a Shell station on Kanchanaphisek Road.

Officers converged on the vehicle at around 4:30 pm local time on September 27.

They detained Samrit before searching his car and finding the narcotics packed inside eight cardboard boxes.

Police also found a 9mm Walter semi-automatic pistol, 14 rounds of .380-calibre ammunition and two mobile phones inside the vehicle.

Samrit was arrested for allegedly possessing and distributing Category 1 narcotics, as well as carrying a firearm and ammunition in public without a permit.

He allegedly told officers he had been hired by a drug network to transport the narcotics and had carried out five or six similar deliveries, earning around 100,000 baht per trip.

Samrit claimed he had collected the latest shipment in Chonburi before driving towards Bangkok to hand it to another recipient, who would transport it onwards to the southern region.

Police Colonel Ritthee Pandam, deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's Investigation Division, said: ‘The shipment was intended for further transport to the southern region, but we tracked him down and executed the arrest first.

‘We are expanding the investigation to track down accomplices and masterminds involved to bring them for prosecution, as well as checking financial trails and assets connected to the drug network.'

Thailand has become a notorious hub for drug use, production, and trafficking. In the north of the country, the ‘Golden Triangle' area shares borders with Laos and Myanmar, and has produced large amounts of opium since the 1950s but focus in recent years has shifted to the more profitable methamphetamine.

Officials believe most of the meth is produced in the Shan State of Myanmar before being distributed through neighbouring countries where prices are higher before ending up in the most expensive markets of Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

However, cracking down on drug production has been complicated by the influx of crime gangs from China and the Burmese civil war, which has seen the army take over the country - along with control of lucrative drugs chains.