Police seize 75kg heroin disguised in cannabis packages at parcel hub
Police seized heroin disguised in cannabis packages at a parcel hub.
Regional police and anti-narcotics agents searched a parcel sorting centre allegedly used to smuggle drugs in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, on June 16.
They discovered 10 packages containing 200 compressed cannabis bricks - which are legal in the country - weighing around 180 kilogrammes (397 pounds) in total.
But concealed inside each brick were packs of heroin totalling 75 kilogrammes (165 pounds.
Footage shows an officer pulling a heroin package from a hollowed-out cannabis brick used to smuggle the drugs undetected.
Investigators said the shipment was allegedly organised by a Laos-based trafficking network that moved narcotics through the border provinces of Nakhon Phanom and Bueng Kan before transporting them to central Thailand.
The shipments were reportedly intended to be forwarded to third countries through private parcel delivery companies.
They intercepted the smuggling route and successfully seized the narcotics at the parcel sorting centre.
Authorities said they are continuing to expand the investigation to identify and apprehend accomplices and other individuals connected to the network for legal action.
Thailand has become a notorious hub for drug 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.
