Thai authorities seized 40 blocks of heroin hidden in slushie machines destined for Taiwan.

Office of the Narcotics Control Board officers, working with Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB), uncovered the shipment following an investigation of a shipping company in Bangkok.

Police dismantled the two ice shaving machines and found metal boxes concealing 14.8 kilogrammes of contraband. Police said the drugs would fetch for around 100 million THB (around 2.2 million GBP) in the Taiwanese market - around eight to 10 times more than its street value in Thailand.

Police Lieutenant General Panurat Lakboonto, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said in a May 15 press conference that the raid came following a previous drug case in which one suspect was arrested.

In that case, the ONCB, the MJIB, and the Seaport Interdiction Task Force had intercepted a 320-kg shipment of ketamine hidden in robot statues also headed for Taiwan on April 25.

Authorities expanded their investigation about the drug network and learned of the heroin shipment in Bangkok. The drugs are believed to have originated from the notorious Golden Triangle - a lawless area of land bordering Thailand, Laos and Myanmar that was once the world's biggest opium-producing region before Afghanistan took the lead at the turn of the century.

Police Lieutenant General Panurat said: 'The ONCB will continue to collaborate with the MJIB to identify the intended recipient of the drugs and dismantle the drug smuggling network in Taiwan. 

'Regarding the sender, the ONCB is pursuing further investigations and gathering evidence to take legal action against them.'

He added that the Airport Interdiction Task Force has arrested 74 suspects in 80 drug-related cases since October 23.

Police have also seized 24,311 amphetamine pills, 43.20 kilos of crystal meth, 63.76 kilos of heroin, 33.86 kilos of cocaine, 3.2 kilos of ketamine, and 14 ecstasy pills - most of which were destined for Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Korea.

The Golden Triangle has been cleaned up in recent years, with the Thai territory said to have eradicated the cultivation of poppies. However, they are still grown in Laos and Myanmar often before being smuggled into Thai ports to be shipped to lucrative international markets.