Thai officers attack drug traffickers

YALA (SOUTHERN THAILAND), August 24 (TNA) - Thai security officers charged a gang of suspected drug traffickers at a rubber plantation in Raman District of Thailand's southernmost Yala Province on Friday, killing a suspect and injuring another. The Thai officers tried to arrest the drug trafficking suspects at a house in the rubber plantation in Baan Kalo. Both sides then exchanged gunfire for over 10 minutes. Afterward, the Thai security officers found the body of Abdulloh Lasee with an M16 rifle about 100 meters from the house. Another suspect was injured and a few others managed to escape. The drug suspects are believed to be followers of Usman Molo, a key insurgent in the area. The local officers also seized their weapons to check whether they had been used in any violent attack and found kratom solution and two sacks of narcotic substances in the house. In Nathawee District of Songkhla Province, also in the Thai far South, local police, meanwhile, arrested three male drug trafficking suspects in two raids and seized from the suspects 6,400 methamphetamine pills, 74 grams of crystal methamphetamine, one kilogram of kratom leaves, drug abuse instruments, four war guns, bullets, over 300,000 baht in cash, two cars and two motorcycles. (TNA)