BANGKOK: Police in Thailand seized more than seven million methamphetamine tablets on Saturday following a dramatic car chase, highlighting how drugs continue to pour into the country from the notorious Golden Triangle region. Investigators said three speeding pick-up trucks failed to stop at a checkpoint in norther Lampang province, close to Thailand’s porous borders with Myanmar and Laos. “Police shot out the tyres of the middle car and arrested one Thai national,” Colonel Chairoj Uangpayung, commander of Wiang Mok police station, told AFP. In his truck they found 3.4 million meth tablets and 20 kilogrammes of “ice” — a purer form of methamphetamine. Authorities sped after the other two pick-up drivers who escaped, but not before dropping 20 bags of methamphetamine on the road. “Police have not counted the second batch yet but altogether I think it’s more than seven million tablets,” Colonel Chairoj said. Investigators estimate the street value of the haul at around $32 million. Thailand is a major drug market as well as transit route, particularly for “yaba” — meth pills produced in the notorious Golden Triangle region bordering Laos and Myanmar.