Thai officials seize THB1.5bn worth of meth pills in record bust on Myanmar border

Chulalongkorn University’s Centre for Addiction Studies reports that the minimum street price of a meth pill in Bangkok is around 30 baht, meaning Tuesday’s haul was worth upward of 1.5 billion baht.

The seizure ranked second in terms of Asian meth busts, beaten only by 55 million meth tablets confiscated in Laos near the Golden Triangle, said Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Douglas told Reuters that criminal gangs working with ethnic armed militias were flooding Thailand and countries beyond with methamphetamine produced in Myanmar’s Shan State.

Narcotics production in Myanmar’s Golden Triangle has risen sharply in the wake of the 2021 coup, which plunged much of the country into chaos and conflict.

Thailand has responded by stepping up border patrols and announcing…