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By APD writer Chen Jiabao
BANGKOK, June 5 (APD) -- One thousand kilograms of marijuana were found on the banks of the Mekong River in northeastern Thailand on Monday, border patrol police told local media.
Local media reported that the seizure was made on early Monday in Nakon Phanom, a province bordering Laos to the east over the Mekong River.
Patrol police were informed by villagers who spotted suspicious-looking sacks on the river bank. Then they found marijuana sealed in plastic wrap, weighing 1,000 kilograms in 25 sacks.
Officiers found no body showed up to pick up the sacks.
It has been the second seizure of marijuana along Mekong river in the same province in less than one week.
The Thai Navy’s Mekong Patrol Operation Command seized 840 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana worth nearly 17 million baht (490,000 U.S dollars) seized last Wednesday night. They arrested the skipper of the motorboat where the marijuana was uploaded in sacks.
The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in southeast Asia which runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
The river has been awash with drugs and traffickers. Drugs are usually smuggled into Laos first and spirited across Mekong river into Thailand.
Officer in charge of patrols said marijuana smuggling was increasing in the northeastern province this year. Nakhon Phanom officials seized almost two tonnes in the past months. Last year they seized about three tonnes in total.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
