Thai police and customs officials arrested a truck driver and seized illegal narcotics, worth about 100 million baht hidden in oil drums, at a border checkpoint in the north-eastern province of Nong Khai today (Wednesday).
Officials became suspicious that oil drums were being brought into Thailand from Laos and had all of them examined usingan X-ray machine, which revealed something unusual in some of the drums.
Upon opening, the drums were found to contain 10kgs of crystal meth and Ecstasy and 3.8 million methamphetamine tablets, with an estimated street value of 100 million baht.
The driver, 53-year-old Prasit, a resident of the Nam Som district in Udon Thani Province, reportedly told the police that he was approached by a Laotian man with an offer of 50,000 baht to deliver the drugs to a customer in Prachin Buri.
Prasit claimed that he needed the cash for medical treatment for his sick wife in Udon Thani.
He was held in police custody on drug trafficking charges.