YANGON, MAR 6 (AP/UNB) - Myanmar troops confiscated grenades and other weapons from a border hide-out used by suspected drug traffickers after an earlier shootout killed 13 policemen and members of their patrol, state media reported Saturday.

The gunbattle took place Feb. 20 near the northeastern town of Tachileik, which borders Thailand, but was only reported Saturday by Myanmar's tightly controlled media.

An anti-drug police squad was patrolling the Mekong River near Tachileik when a skirmish erupted with drug traffickers who killed eight policemen, two locally trained militia who were on the patrol
and three drivers of the police motorboats, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

The report gave no additional details of the clash and did not mention if any alleged traffickers were killed. Myanmar troops searched for the smugglers for several days and, acting on a tip, raided what appeared to be their camp Feb. 25 on an island in the Mekong River near Tachileik, the newspaper said.

Troops found 15 tents on the island and seized 878 grenades, M-79 grenade launchers and 1,500 rounds of ammunition for M-16 rifles, the newspaper said. They also seized 365 blocks of caffeine and 38 packets of caffeine powder - a common ingredient in methamphetamine tablets.

Thailand and Myanmar have intensified crackdowns on cross-border drug smuggling, with numerous busts in recent months near Tachileik that have led to seizures of large quantities of methamphetamines.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, produced an estimated 410 tons of opium in 2008, enough to make around 40 tons of heroin, according to United Nations figures. The country is the world's second-largest producer of both opium and heroin after Afghanistan.