Police arrested a couple allegedly caught with half a tonne of methamphetamine from the notorious Golden Triangle in Thailand.

The couple had reportedly been smuggling drugs from a warehouse on the outskirts of Bangkok to Songkhla province in the country's southern tip bordering Malaysia.

Police raided their rental home in Pathum Thani province on December 14 amid investigations into a transnational drug trafficking network using Thailand as a narcotics transit hub.

Dramatic footage shows officers barging into the property and detaining the couple, who immediately surrendered. Police found Styrofoam boxes filled taped shut and filled with parcels of contraband.

Police Lieutenant General Phanurat Lakbun, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said in a December 16 press conference that 1,065lbs (483kg) of crystal meth were seized from the suspects.

He said: 'The network has a base of operations in the Golden Triangle area and uses Thailand as a route to transport drugs to other countries like Australia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, usually by ship. The drugs that are often smuggled are crystal methamphetamine, heroin, and ketamine.'

The couple allegedly admitted they were hired to deliver the drugs to Songkhla province for one million baht (23,150 GBP). They said they had already completed three such trips before being arrested.

Police said they were expanding the investigation to find other suspects in the syndicate.

Bloomberg citing data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that a record 169 tonnes of methamphetamine was seized in Southeast Asia last year, 82 per cent of which came from the Golden Triangle - a hotbed of criminal activity where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet.

At the heart of the Golden Triangle lies the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), run by notorious Chinese business tycoon and suspected crime boss Zhao Wei in the Chinese vassal state Laos. Communist chiefs are said to turn a Nelsonian eye to his wrongdoing.

In 2007, Zhao brokered a deal with the Laos government and obtained a 99-year lease to build the zone on a 39-square mile patch of impoverished Bokeo province.

The Chinese businessman claims to be a benefactor as he touts the GTSEZ as a tourist and economic hub designed to bring more income and investments into the country. However, both local and international law enforcement agencies believe it is a front for organised crime, including human trafficking, drug trafficking, and call-centre scams.

International authorities have struggled to take down the gambling empire as the Laos government itself is said to be protecting the GTSEZ, in which it has a 20 per cent stake.

(1 GBP = 43.14 THB)