- Methamphetamines at Thai/ Burmese border

ONE WORD BARFINDER

<!-- This is just one example for the daily struggle of the Thai authorities with and against drug trafficing into the realm. You find such articles two three times a week in the "Post" or the "Nation"
From common Thai farmers to students of Chulalongkorn university the use of speed is in full swing. IT'S BIG BUSINESS. The illicit speed factories are lined up along the Burmese/Thai border , and than smuggled into the realm. The Thai army tries to stop that ..... but, it's too much money in the biz, know what I mean?. Take care, don't get in the line of fire..!. you are on vacation and not on a escape? Aren't you?

METHAMPHETAMINES

Friday 30 August 2002
Drug gang ambushed, six tribesmen killed in gunfight Police, soldiers lay in hiding for six days
from Wassana Nanuam and Cheewin Sattha
An anti-drug force ambushed a group of methamphetamine smugglers in Chiang Mai yesterday, killing six Lisor tribesmen among them and confiscating 1.1 million speed pills.

The force, consisting of about 50 soldiers and local and border patrol police, had waited in hiding for the smugglers since Saturday near Highway 1095 (Pai-Mae Taeng) in Ban Huay Nam Dang village, tambon Pa Pae, Mae Taeng district.

A group of 17 drug smugglers walked into the trap around 4am yesterday.

A 20-minute gunbattle ensued before the smugglers escaped.

A search of the fight scene, about 40km from the Thai-Burmese border, found six dead bodies of Lisor hilltribesmen, bags containing 1.1 million speed pills, a M16 assault rifle and a hand grenade.

Third Army chief Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasing said the Lisor men killed in the ambush were local villagers who had been hired to help transport the speed pills.

Pol Lt-Col Nopakao Kokilawathee, who led the ambush team, said the smugglers were intercepted on a trail from Ban Doi Sammuen village to Huay Nam Dang national park.

They apparently planned to take the drugs to Ban Buak and Ban Thoong Jor villages in Mae Taeng district for storage there before distribution to dealers, the officer said.

The Third Army has deployed 12,000 soldiers to fight drugs, he said.

Half of them were operating in border areas, 25% in areas about 50km from the frontier, and the rest running anti-drug campaigns and gathering intelligence in border villages.

Since May, border skirmishes which broke out while the Third Army was conducting the ``Surasee 143'' exercise had caused some 100 million speed pills to be stranded on the Burmese side, Lt-Col Udomchai said.

Smugglers were waiting for a chance to bring them into Thailand, probably in the next two months during rotations of border forces.

Once border skirmishes stopped and the Burmese border was reopened, he said, drug smugglers were likely to become more active, especially along routes through Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai, Mae Sot district of Tak, and Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces.

The Third Army chief said the government should seek further cooperation from Burma.

Speed factories were still in business along the Burmese border.

source bangkok post