Two men were arrested for carrying heroin and methamphetamines at a Paholyothin Highway checkpoint in Kamphaeng Phet's Muang district on Friday morning, police said yesterday.

Following an informant's tip that a drug haul would be carried through their area of responsibility, Tambon Song Tham police set up a checkpoint and stopped a Toyota pickup truck with Bangkok licence plates coming from Tak.

Police said the driver, 27-year-old Narathiwat native Ahanadsan Doloh, and his 22-year-old passenger, Nontha-buri resident Masaudi Jehheng, had looked suspicious so they had searched the vehicle and found 17.9 kilograms of heroin and 15,400 methamphetamine tablets inside the truck's four doors.

The two suspects told police that Lee, a Narathiwat man in his late twenties, had hired them to drive Lee in his truck from Nonthaburi to Lampang's Big C supermarket on Thursday night.

They then met two hill-tribesmen who gave the two a pickup truck, which was later found with the drugs, for them to drive back to the Big C supermarket in Rattanathibet in Bangkok. The suspects insisted to police they had not known about the drugs. Police intend to search for their alleged hirer, who managed to escape arrest.

The two were charged with having narcotics in their possession with intent to distribute them.

Provincial Police Region 6 Commissioner Lt-General Wiroj Jantharangsee said the 17.9kg of heroin would be worth about Bt10 million in Thailand and about Bt1.22 billion if sold in the United States.

Wiroj instructed police to crack down seriously on drugs, which he said seemed to be spreading again, with the lower northern routes used as trafficking paths.

The Nation

KAMPHAENG PHET