Army patrol kills 5 drug smugglers

CHIANG RAI: Five armed drug smugglers were killed in a clash with soldiers in Mae Sai district on the border with Myanmar early on Thursday.

Maj Gen Suparerk Sathapornpol, commander of the army’s Pha Muang Force, said a ranger patrol from the 2nd Army’s operations centre at 1.30 am spotted eight armed men with backpacks walking through a forest of Doi Tung heading to Mu Ban Huai Khrai Mai in the district.

The officers told them to stop for a search, but they refused to follow the order and started shooting, which prompted the soldiers to return fire. The ensuing gunfight lasted about five minutes, Maj Gen Suparerk said.

No soldiers were injured.

After the shooting stopped, the soldiers scoured the area and found the bodies of five men who had been killed in the clash. They also found and seized five backpacks containing a total of 500,000 methamphetamine pills, he…