BANGKOK, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Two tour bus drivers were arrested in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand on Sunday on charge of trafficking nearly three million tablets of methamphetamine hidden aboard, said a police general on Monday.
The tour bus drivers, identified as Phrom Rattanakrachang and Thanathip Rattanakrachang, had allegedly trafficked 2,828,000 tablets of methamphetamine aboard their tour bus, which had shuttled passengers between Chiang Rai and Bangkok, according to Deputy Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Chalermkiat Srivorakhan.
The drug trafficking suspects were arrested by police at a gas station in Chiang Rai after the speed pills had been unloaded from the tour bus to a pickup truck.
The police chased the drug-laden truck which finally veered off the road but the driver managed to escape, leaving behind the drugs, the deputy police chief said.
Phrom and Thanathip told the police that they had been hired for 100,000 baht (about 3,030 U.S. dollars) to do the illegal job by putting the drugs in the cargo bay of their tour bus, mingling with the passengers' luggage.
Though they admitted to having trafficked drugs twice earlier, they said they did not understand Sunday's event in which the unidentified drug dealer, who had hired them, had the drugs unloaded from their tour bus to the pickup truck at the gas station instead of letting them do the trafficking all the way to Bangkok as before, Pol. Gen. Chalermkiat said.
