Thailand seizes over $22.42 million worth of crystal meth

Thailand has made one of its largest crystal methamphetamine busts, seizing 700 million baht ($22.42 million) worth of the drug, police said on Tuesday, as the United Nations warned Southeast Asia was being flooded with illegal drugs from the "Golden Triangle" region.

Police said 700 kilograms (1,543 lbs) of the drug, known as ice, was seized on March 28 in southern Chumpon Province and were destined for Malaysia.

More than nine million meth tablets were also found in fertiliser bags inside the vehicle, which lay some 100 metres away from the banks of the Mekong river that divides Thailand and Laos.

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"Both type of drugs were found in the abandoned pickup truck... in Wiang Kaen district in Chiang Rai province," a military official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

He said the drug smugglers had already fled while authorities have detained three Thai men suspected of preparing to move the cache to the next destination.

The Golden Triangle -- a remote region where northern Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet -- is a base for cartels who churn out huge quantities of opium and meth that are smuggled through porous borders to countries across Asia.

"These big seizures are indications that there is a relentless supply pumping out of the Golden Triangle and north Shan to flood Southeast Asian markets and also transit Southeast Asia to high value markets like Australia, New Zealand and potentially further," Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC's chief in Southeast Asia said.

The drugs were found on March 28 among fruit packed into a six-wheel truck in Chumpon province.

"The drugs were being transported via Thailand to Malaysia and destined for third countries," said Soonthorn Chalermkiat from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau.

Two Thai and two Malaysian trafficking suspects have been arrested, he added.

Commonly known as "ice", crystal meth is a stronger form of the drug that sells for around $60-80 a gramme in Thailand.

The methamphetamine market has expanded at an alarming rate in East and Southeast Asia. In 2015, experts in several countries in the subregion reported an increase in the use of both crystalline methamphetamine and methamphetamine tablets.

Among amphetamines, methamphetamine represents the greatest global health threat, a 2017 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug report said.

Most of the drugs were produced outside of Thailand and were trafficked through the country en route to Australia, North America and Europe.

(With inputs from agencies)