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
