Drugs worth $23m seized in raid on trawlers
Navy officials in Thailand have raided two trawlers in the Andaman Sea and seized heroin and amphetamine pills worth $23.25 million in one of the biggest drug hauls in the country.
Twenty-two Myanmar and two Thai crew members were arrested during the raid off Surin Island, in Pnang-nga province.
In total 100 kilogrammes of high-grade heroin and 4 million amphetamine pills were found stashed inside rice bins in the two Thai-registered boats.
The drugs are worth 1 billion baht ($23.25 million) in Thailand, while in Europe the value could be at least 10 times more.
That figure could rise when the trawlers are brought ashore and officials open 10 more bins believed to contain drugs.
The boats were coming from Myanmar toward Thailand, and were intercepted after authorities received a tip-off.
Myanmar is the world's second largest source of heroin after Afghanistan, and also has become a leading production centre for amphetamines. Most of the drugs are trafficked through China and Thailand.
