Nearly 700m speed pills seized in six-month crackdown

Assets worth 5.85 billion baht frozen in nationwide crackdown

A sweeping six‑month narcotics crackdown has resulted in the seizure of nearly 700 million methamphetamine pills and the freezing of assets worth almost 6 billion baht, as drug syndicates continue to deploy increasingly inventive smuggling techniques, the national police chief said on Thursday.

Pol Gen Kittharath Punpetch outlined the results during a media briefing at police headquarters in Bangkok, covering operations carried out from Oct 1 last year to Mar 25, 2026.

Representatives from the Border Patrol Police, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) were present, in a move meant to demonstrate the integrated efforts to disrupt drug supply lines, transport routes and financial networks.

According to the police chief, officers handled 145,541 drug‑related cases during the period and seized large quantities of narcotics, including:

• 693.45 million meth tablets
• 22.8 tonnes of crystal meth
• 597 kilogrammes of heroin
• 3.8 tonnes of ketamine
• 268,105 ecstasy pills

Authorities also impounded 5.85 billion baht in assets linked to drug‑trafficking networks.

One notable case was a major arrest on Jan 3 in Nakhon Sawan’s Krok Phra district. Officers from the anti‑drug transport division, working with military personnel, intercepted six suspects at a petrol station and seized nearly 2 million speed pills hidden inside 11 modified gas cylinders.

The cylinders had been welded shut to conceal the drugs, which had been transported from the northern province of Chiang Rai to be distributed in central provinces. X‑ray scanners uncovered the concealment.

Pol Gen Kittharath said the incident reflected an ongoing shift in trafficking tactics, with syndicates using parcels, household goods and other items to evade detection.

In some cases, traffickers cut both ends off plastic bottles, placed drugs in the middle section and reattached the label upside down to hide the alteration.

Asked whether rising fuel prices, affected by the Middle East conflict, had affected the narcotics trade, Pol Gen Kittharath said officers were analysing whether transportation costs were constraining trafficking networks.

However, he warned that smugglers continued to devise new methods to bypass checkpoints and surveillance.

All units have been instructed to maintain professional standards, intensify intelligence‑gathering and stay ahead of rapidly evolving smuggling techniques, the police chief added.