Narcotics Officer Shootout: Drug Suspect Fires at Police During High-Speed Chase, Dies in Crash
A drug suspect died after firing at narcotics officers during a high-speed chase in Chiang Rai, with police recovering over 1.1 million methamphetamine tablets from his crashed pickup truck.
Narcotics Unit 327 pursued a pickup truck carrying 1.1 million methamphetamine tablets as the driver fled, lost control on a road, jumped from the vehicle while firing at officers to escape, and ultimately died in a crash in the rice field.
At 3 p.m. on May 24, 2025, Deputy Commander Chawlit Khamtue and Commander Thanawat Tipwari of Unit 327 reported an armed drug trafficking incident to Mae Chai Police Station in Chiang Rai. Officers engaged in a firefight with a suspect in the Ban Mae Khi area of Mae Chai District, Chiang Rai Province.
At the scene, police found the body of 25-year-old Ako, an unregistered person residing in Phong Pha Subdistrict, Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, lying face down. A .38-caliber handgun was found nearby. An Isuzu pickup truck was parked with six sacks of methamphetamine in the truck bed, totaling 1,130,000 tablets.
Investigation revealed that Unit 327 had intelligence about a large drug shipment entering their jurisdiction. Officers tracked a suspicious Isuzu pickup truck in Pa Sang Subdistrict, Mae Chai District. When the suspect realized he was being followed, he accelerated and fled to a rice field where the vehicle crashed off the road. The driver jumped out, fired at officers to create an escape route, prompting officers to return fire in self-defense. The suspect was struck and killed.
Officers transported the body to a hospital and initiated legal proceedings while continuing to pursue other members of the drug trafficking network.
