BANGKOK (AFP) - THAI police arrested two men and a woman in northern Thailand on Sunday found with 300,000 stimulant pills worth nearly US$1 million (S$1.40 million).

Officers followed the trio for several days as they travelled to Chiang Mai province, where they detained the group and found the amphetamine pills in boxes in a truck, thought to be destined for Bangkok.

Police estimated the street value of the drugs to be US$919 million.

The suspects from the ethnic minority Hmong group were charged with drugs possession.

Drugs trafficking officially carries the death penalty although executions are rare.

Amphetamine-type stimulants are now the leading drugs in terms of use in Southeast Asia, according to a report late last year from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

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