Thai heroin corridor reopening, dru

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Subject: Thai heroin corridor reopening, drug officials say

Thai heroin corridor reopening, drug officials say
05:13 a.m. Jan 14, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Drugs cartels have started to send large
quantities of heroin from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle through Thailand
again after a three-year lull, Thai officials said on Thursday.

Thailand's Narcotic Control Board (NCB) said it arrested three suspects for
heroin trafficking on Wednesday and Thursday and seized 45 kg (99 lbs) of
heroin in its biggest drugs haul in weeks.

A narcotics official said the haul indicated Thailand was again becoming the
preferred route for moving heroin onto the world market from the so-called
Golden Triangle, a mountainous region at the intersection of Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos.

``Three years ago the traffickers began to use China and Vietnam as the
major heroin routes to Europe, America and other markets. But since the
Chinese government began a crackdown on the trade, there are signs
traffickers have gone back to using Thailand as a route,'' Chatichai
Sithiklam, the head of the NCB's drug suppression division, told a news
conference.

Chatichai said 90 bars of heroin weighing 45 kg were seized in Pattalung
province in southern Thailand on Wednesday when police stopped a truck at a
rendezvous where two of the suspects were about to hand over the drugs to
buyers.

Chatichai said it was the second major drugs haul in a month and both
consignments had used a similar routes through Thailand. Informants had told
them the same gangs had formerly sent drugs through China.

NCB officials declined to estimate the value of the heroin seized.

Police said they had followed the suspects from Mae Sai, a town in northern
Thailand that is part of the Golden Triangle after they received a shipment
from an agent on the border.

They had arrested one suspect in Mae Sai who they said had acted as an agent
for the heroin. All the suspects were Thai but the NCB said the seized
heroin had come from Myanmar.

Police said the heroin had been moved into Thailand by an ethnic minority
community living in northeastern Myanmar but declined to identify which one.

Several ethnic minorities live in that part of Myanmar, including the Wa and
Shan, some of whom were formerly led by the opium warlord Khun Sa.


In the first eight months of last year, the NCB seized 410 kg (900 lbs) of
heroin from the Golden Triangle.

The U.S. Drugs Enforcement Administration estimates that some 70 percent of
heroin smuggled into the United States comes from the Golden Triangle.