BANGKOK, Jan 23 — International drug traffickers gave new meaning to the local delicacy, ‘iced watermelon’ when a Malaysia-bound consignment of 300kg of the party drug, ‘ice’ (crystal methamphetamine) was found hidden among hundreds of watermelon inside a lorry.

The lorry was transporting the agriculture produce when it was stopped at a police checkpoint in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of Thailand, two days ago.

Upon checking its contents, the police were astonished at the quantity of ‘ice’ hidden in the lorry and arrested three men who were in the vehicle, in connection with the seizure.

Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) head, Lt Gen Sommai Kongvisaisuk said the drug estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of Baht was destined for southern Thailand where it would be smuggled into Malaysia.

During separate raids in Narathiwat and Yala yesterday, the authorities detained two men and two women who planned to smuggle the drug across Sungai Golok into Malaysia, he told Bernama here today.

Sungai Golok is a narrow river separating Narathiwat in southern Thailand and Kelantan in Malaysia.

Sommai said the seven suspects arrested in Nakhon Ratchasima and southern Thailand were assisting the police in their investigations into an international drug trafficking syndicate which facilitated the influx of drugs into Malaysia.

On another matter, he said the Thai Navy patrolling the Mekong River near the Thai-Laos border yesterday intercepted a boat ferrying a consignment of about 11 million ‘Yaba’ tablets, a low-grade type of methamphetamine.

A man who was in the boat was arrested in connection with the seizure. — Bernama