Thai police have seized 1600 kilograms of ketamine and crystal methamphetamine stashed under cabbages in the bed of a pickup truck, with the driver arrested on drug trafficking charges.
The 39 year old Thai man was arrested over the weekend when he stopped his truck at a petrol station in central Ayutthaya province, police said.
Authorities found 900 kilograms (one US ton) of ketamine and 700 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in packages hidden underneath bags of the leafy vegetable, Bangkok police said in a statement on Sunday.
The driver, who was arrested on Saturday, confessed that he was hired to transport the drugs for 100,000 baht ($3,000), police said.
The drug trafficking charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
Thailand is a major hub for illegal drug trafficking in Southeast Asia, and police raids and seizures of hard narcotics such as heroin and methamphetamine are common.
Thailand was the “main transit and destination point for methamphetamine” trafficked from neighbouring Myanmar and has recorded the largest quantity of seized meth in the region, according to UNODC
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said a record 236 tons of methamphetamine were seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2024 — a 24 per cent rise from the previous year.