From his home in Na Kaung Muu in Burma’s Shan State, Laota Yang crossed the rocky border two kilometres into Doi Angkhang in Chiang Mai in Thailand’s north late on Friday with three friends and 20 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, or Ice.

Colonel Ittiporn Junsributara of the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau said the four had arranged a deal two months ago with undercover agents and were to make the exchange at the Angkhang market in the morning.

At around 9 a.m. on July 31, the Ice swap was made on one side of the market while Yang, 40, waited on the other for the money, with two grenades in his pockets. He was unaware his comrades had been caught but had managed to outrun the police into the jungle after ditching their 60 million baht (US$1.8 million) package of Ice.

By the time Yang realised his new customer was an undercover narcotics officer, more than two dozen police and border patrol officers had him surrounded.

Thailand’s drug bureau had received a tip a while back that Yang, a Burmese citizen of Chinese descent, was a major player in the Thai-Burmese drug trade. Working with the Border Patrol Police Region 3, they managed to execute their first arrest from this particular group, Colonel Prasop Chai of the Narcotics Suppression Police.

“He is a Wa,” Prasop said, believing Yang belongs to the Wa ethnic minority. “But he won’t tell us who his boss is or who produced the drugs.”

“We’ve interrogated him but he won’t say anything,” Ittiporn said. “We think he’s Wa because the grenades that we confiscated from him were stamped with ‘Made in Wa State’ in Chinese and the drugs have Chinese writing on them as well. The Ice has been sent to the lab to be analysed.”

Office of Narcotics Control Board director Pornthep Eamprapai said Thai police had seized a total of 24 kilogrammes of Ice in the first six months of this year. The amount seized on Saturday nearly matched that amount.

Yang was taken to Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok after being charged with possession of illicit drugs for sale and illegal possession of explosive devices.

His trial date has yet to be set, but Prasop said he was likely facing a life sentence.