BANGKOK, Sept 16 (TNA) – Security officials have been ordered to seal off the border to block illegal migrants and narcotic smugglers at the same time.
Lt Gen Kongcheep Tantrawanit, spokesman of a deputy prime minister, said that Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon ordered security and administrative officials to block illegal migrants on all channels along the border to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 from spreading in the country.
The officials were also ordered to block narcotics from being smuggled into the country and nail the big drug dealers who were involved with narcotics and traffickers rounded up in border areas.
More narcotics were being smuggled into the country amid the economic slowdown that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, Lt Gen Kongcheep said.
According to him, officials seized 28 million speed pills and 428 kilograms of crystal meth last month as narcotics were being smuggled from neighboring countries through northern and western provinces to the Central Plains.
From Jan 1 to Aug 31, officials arrested 179,050 drug suspects and seized 143 million methamphetamine pills and 5.4 tons of crystal meth. (TNA)
