Five drug smugglers were shot dead and more than a million methamphetamine pills were seized in a gunfight along Thailand's border with Myanmar.

The alleged traffickers were intercepted by the Chaiyanuphap Task Force as they were transporting the narcotics through Chiang Mai province on August 2.

A 10-minute shootout followed, leaving five of around eight suspects dead. No soldiers were injured.

Troops secured the scene with reinforcements, drones, and sniffer dogs. They recovered nine bags containing 1.35 million meth pills, two homemade firearms, and mobile phones.

The unit had been patrolling the border following a tip-off about an incoming drug delivery.

Colonel Amnart Wachirasaksophana, commander of Chaiyanuphap Task Force, later inspected the site, and the drugs were handed over to local police for legal proceedings.

Chiang Mai sits along the Golden Triangle, where most of Southeast Asia's meth supply comes from.

The region 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.