Nearly 182 million meth pills seized, over 1,000 drug traffickers arrested by Army in 2022
The Royal Thai Army’s drug suppression operations throughout last year saw 181.93 million methamphetamine pills and 2,875 kilograms of crystal meth or “ice” seized, an RTA spokeswoman said on Monday.
RTA deputy spokeswoman Maj-General Sirichan Ngathong told a press conference that seven Army territorial protection forces along the borders carried out patrols and monitoring operations by joining forces with police and Interior Ministry officials from January 1 to December 21 last year. The operations led to 1,052 drug traffickers being arrested.
During the year-long operations, the border security forces seized 181.933 million meth pills, 201,617 ecstasy pills, 2,875kg of ice, 51.29kg of heroin, 441.90kg of ketamine, and 47.16kg of raw opium, the spokeswoman said.
She said the seizure of the drugs were higher compared to 2021. Meth pills seized were 1.25 times the previous year's quantity, ecstasy pills by 5.66 times, and ketamine by 2.09 times.
She added that each border force would analyse its own arrest data to try to improve monitoring against drug smuggling.
She added that the border security forces had also been stepping up monitoring during the New Year holidays.
