Police seized 897kgs of crystal meth bound from Thailand to Taiwan.

Officers confiscated the 24 cardboard boxes of contraband at a port in the capital Bangkok after being tipped off about the shipment being sent to Taiwan. The boxes were screened through an X-ray and were found to contain packets of the powdered drug stuffed inside 161 silicone sheets.

Customs Department director-general Patchara Anantasilp said: ‘The 897kg of crystal meth is worth about 500 to 600 million baht (about 11 to 14 million GBP), but once they reach their destination, they will be worth 3 billion baht (roughly 67.5 million GBP) in market price.’

He added that the smuggle attempt was unrelated to an earlier intercepted shipment of 400kg of heroin also destined to Taiwan.

Narcotics Suppression Bureau deputy commissioner Police Major-General Pornchai Charoenwong said they are trying to find the source of the drugs, which is believed to have originated from a Thai-Taiwanese drug trafficking group.

Thailand has become a notorious hub for drug production and smuggling in recent years. In the north of the country, it’s ‘Golden Triangle’ area shares borders with Laos and Myanmar.

In November 2020, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began working with Thai officials ‘to disrupt the trafficking of precursor chemicals used for the illicit manufacture of synthetic drugs in the Golden Triangle’.