DRUG DEALERS SHOT DEAD IN POLICE STING

Three alleged drug traffickers were killed and more than 400,000
methamphetamine pills seized in a police sting operation in a Chiang Mai
border town yesterday.

Lt-Colonel Bunyasait Rodchaprom, an inspector from the Narcotics
Suppression Division who headed the operation, said undercover police used
Bt10 million cash to lure a gang of methamphetamine traffickers into a trap
in Chiang Mai's Mae Tang district.

Two of the dead have been identified as Thinthai Jua, 22, and Amnuay Yang,
22, both residents of Mae Hong Son's Pai district. Bunyasit said police set
up a meeting with five suspects who were to deliver 440,000 methamphetamine
pills to the front of Panglan Temple in Mae Tang at 4am yesterday. After
the suspects delivered the drugs, police identified themselves and tried to
arrest them. Two fled on a motorcycle, two others opened fire and the fifth
fled in a pickup. After a 15-minute exchange of fire, the two were found
dead. Police chased the pickup and were involved in a half-hour gunfight
before the third suspect, Amnuay, was found dead.