Thai customs officials arrested the driver of a petrol tanker yesterday after discovering an enormous amount of drugs as the truck departed Laos for Thailand.
Police discovered a variety of narcotic substances during a routine inspection of the petrol tanker as it was returning from delivery via the Laos-Thai Friendship Bridge.
A search of the truck revealed some 3.8 million amphetamine pills, ten kilograms of crystal methamphetamines, and 5000 pills of MDMA. Police say the drugs would have netted a street value of over THB 100 million (about USD 2,776,000).
The truck driver, 53-year-old Praseuth Panphoum, confessed to authorities that a woman from Laos in Bolikhamxay Province had paid him THB 50,000 to transport the load.
Mr. Praseuth explained that the woman instructed him to collect the drugs by the roadside along 450 Years Road in Vientiane Capital during his routine fuel delivery in Laos on Tuesday.
He was arrested a day later as he attempted to enter Thailand.
The driver confessed to smuggling drugs into Thailand on previous occasions as well, in the pay of the same woman.
Earlier on Monday, Nong Khai police also managed to nab two Lao men smuggling drugs by boat in the Mekong River.
