Thai police seized 4.8 million meth pills and 171 bars of heroin in two major drug busts along the country's northern border.

Authorities announced the results of the raids at a press conference in Chiang Mai on October 25.

In the first operation, Chiang Saen Police Station officers flagged a grey Nissan pickup truck allegedly smuggling drugs from neighbouring Myanmar on October 23.

The driver reportedly sped through the checkpoint and abandoned the vehicle before fleeing into the Mekong River. Inside the truck, officers discovered 20 sacks stuffed with 4.8 million methamphetamine tablets. Investigators are now pursuing several suspects.

In a separate operation on the same day, Chiang Kham Police in Phayao seized 171 bars of heroin weighing 145.5 pounds (66 kilogrammes).

The bust followed an undercover sting in which two alleged traffickers delivered the drugs to an officer posing as a buyer at a rubber plantation.

Police Lieutenant General Kritthapol Yisakhon, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5, said: ‘These arrests are part of a strategic operation to block and intercept narcotics along the northern border, which serves as a frontline for smuggling from neighbouring countries into Thailand.

‘There is strong and continuous cooperation between the police, military, and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.'

He added that police have handled 1,373 drug cases from October 1 to 24, confiscating 23 million methamphetamine pills, 595 pounds (270 kilogrammes) of crystal meth, 145.5 pounds (66 kilogrammes) of heroin, and 163 pounds (74 kilogrammes) of ketamine.

Thailand's northern region sits on the edge of the notorious 'Golden Triangle' region, where its borders with neighbouring Myanmar and Laos meet.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said an explosive growth of illegal drug production in the area led to a record 236 tons of meth seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2024.

Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: 'The 236 tons represent only the amount seized; much more methamphetamine is actually reaching the market.'

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.