This is the dramatic moment police chased a pickup truck moving 238 kilogrammes of meth near the Thai border.
Officers were on heightened alert against transnational drug smuggling when they spotted a 'suspicious' black Isuzu D-Max travelling along Bueng Kan in the early hours of May 8.
Checkpoint officers moved in for an inspection, but the vehicle was said to have sped away, triggering a high-speed police chase through a rural road bordered by forests.
Footage shows police converging on the pickup after it suffered a flat tyre at a nearby palm plantation.
The driver, Ekkarat Leudara, 29, was arrested while the passenger fled on foot into the woods.
Officers seized eight sacks of crystal meth worth 300 million baht, a blue iPhone 13 and the pickup truck, valued at around 500,000 baht.
Ekkarat and the seized items were handed over to Ho Kham Police Station for further legal proceedings.
He was charged with possession of a Category 1 narcotic with intent to distribute for commercial purposes in a manner affecting public safety and state security, driving under the influence of a Category 1 narcotic, and consumption of a Category 1 narcotic.
Police Lieutenant General Santi Chainiramai, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 4, said the operation aimed to dismantle drug smuggling gangs crossing the Mekong River into the Thai provinces of Loei, Nong Khai, Bueng Kan, and Nakhon Phanom.
He added that the pickup truck matched intel of a vehicle allegedly used to transport narcotics.
The police chief said: ‘We will expand the investigation and gather evidence to prosecute the drug trafficking ring involved.'
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