Ranger Firefight Kills Drug Smuggler, Seizes 300,000 Pills

Ranger units under the Phahonyothin Task Force engaged in a fierce firefight with a drug smuggling gang at the Mae Ai border, resulting in one smuggler's death and the seizure of approximately 300,000 methamphetamine pills. On August 2, 2569, Maj. Gen. Kitti Najai, commander of the Ranger Control Command at the Third Army Region Operations Center, assigned Lt. Col. Prakasit Praobyon and Maj. Phirot Khemkij to lead two operational teams on patrol in Mae Ai District, Chiang Mai Province, following intelligence that a trafficking group was smuggling narcotics from Myanmar into Thailand.

At approximately 2:00 a.m., officers discovered a group of three to five smugglers moving through a natural passage near Pang In subdistrict in Ma Lika tambon, Mae Ai District. When challenged, the gang opened fire with an unidentified weapon, sparking a three-minute firefight. After gunfire ceased in the darkness with limited visibility, ranger forces secured the area and waited for daylight to conduct a thorough search, requesting three additional operational teams for support.

At 6:00 a.m., personnel from the Chaiyanuphaap Special Task Unit entered the area alongside prosecutors, a hospital doctor, police, and forensic investigators. They discovered one deceased smuggler and blood trails suggesting other gang members were wounded and escaped using their knowledge of the terrain. Officers recovered two modified backpacks containing approximately 150,000 methamphetamine pills each, totaling roughly 300,000 pills. All ranger personnel remained unharmed. The seized methamphetamine was handed over to Mae Ai Police Station for further legal proceedings.