Thai soldiers seized 800,000 meth pills in northern Thailand.

Officers halted five men carrying backpacks in Chiang Rai province, along the border with Myanmar, early morning on April 6.

The troops from the special army unit, the The Pha Muang Task Force, requested to conduct a search, only to be met by gunfire.

Officials said the clash lasted for around 10 minutes, after which the suspected smugglers fled the scene, leaving their bags behind.

The squad called for backup and swept the area in the morning. They seized the suspects' bags which contained 800,000 meth pills.

Colonel Anuwat Panyanant, commander of the Thap Chao Tak unit under the Pha Muang Task Force, said the interdiction came after reports of drug suspects travelling across the Tha-Myanmar border.

He said: 'When the clash ended, the officers were unharmed, and the suspects fled, leaving their belongings behind. We believe they used their familiarity with the terrain to quickly escape. The seized items have been handed over to the Mae Fa Luang Police Station for further legal action.'

The Pha Muang Task Force is a unit of the Royal Thai Army tasked with maintaining border security along Thailand's northern borders with Myanmar and Laos.

On April 2, the specialised unit seized 1.2 million meth pills from the same province.

The Golden Triangle, where most of Southeast Asia's meth supply comes from, is found where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. But it has long been a feral nest of criminal activity, including opium production, meth labs and call centre scam bases.

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.