Police killed two drug traffickers in a gunfight after luring them into selling crystal methamphetamine at a forest in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai. The two were suspected of being members of a drug gang linked with Red Wa guerrillas in Burma, which is notorious for smuggling drugs into northern Thailand.

The dead men were identified as Amnuay Wiboonpoonsap and Aka hilltribe member Puengsue Laesur.

They were lured into selling 3.5 million baht worth of the drug, known as ice, near a gateway to Doi Pami mountain. The traffickers opened fire on police first and the gunfight lasted about 10 minutes.

In Nong Khai, officials arrested a Laotian woman at a checkpoint near the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge as she allegedly tried to smuggle 8,000 speed pills into the country.

Kampong Sukwilai, from Vientiane, said she was hired to take the drugs to a buyer in Chon Buri province.