Close watch on generals in drug cas

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Close watch on generals in drug case 

                                                           
                                        October 28, 1998 


                                


                     NARCOTICS

 Close watch on
 generals in drug
 case

 Army and police team up to find evidence 

 Wasana Nanuam Yuwadee Tunyasiri
 Preecha Srisatharn

 Two army major-generals have been put under surveillance following
 police suspicion of their involvement with a major drug ring run by
 Surachai "Bang Ron" Ngernthongfoo, a source said yesterday.

 The move followed talks between Pol Gen Noppadol Somboonsap,
 an assistant police commissioner-general, and Gen Mongkol
 Ampornpisit, the supreme commander of the armed forces, the source
 said.

 Gen Mongkol ordered a military intelligence unit to run background
 checks on the two officers and to tail them as the police tried to gather
 evidence to press charges against them.

 The source said one of the suspects was a commander in the Fourth
 Army Region, and the other a specialist attached to the Supreme
 Command and a former deputy chief of the Armed Forces Security
 Centre.

 The police and the military had similar information about the second
 suspect, who had been linked to "Mafia-type people", the source
 added.

 Once the police could come up with hard evidence, the Supreme
 Command would dismiss them and hand them over for prosecution,
 the source said.

 Deputy Defence Minister Wattanachai Wutthisiri yesterday urged the
 police to speed up their investigation and produce strong evidence to
 back their allegations against military officers.

 "A photograph showing military officers with Bang Ron is not good
 enough," he said. "More evidence is needed to prove the
 connections."

 But he added his ministry was also investigating allegations against
 military officers and would cooperate fully with the police provided
 they had substantial evidence.

 Meanwhile former army chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro yesterday sent
 Bang Ron's mugshots to Burmese authorities and to Gen Bo Mya,
 leader of the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union, to help track down
 the fugitive who might have fled across the border.

 A military source said Bang Ron was believed to have sought
 protection with Red Wa rebels in Burma.

 Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said Pol Gen Pracha Promnok, the
 police commissioner-general, reported to him yesterday about some
 military officers' suspected involvement in Bang Ron's drug ring.

 Mr Chuan, also the defence minister, declined to give details, saying
 only that he had told Pol Gen Pracha to closely follow up this matter
 which needed further investigation to establish facts.

 If more suspects were arrested, the case should be developed as a
 precedent for other future cases, he said.

 Mr Chuan admitted he had raised the issue with the Fourth Army
 Region during his inspection trip to Nakhon Si Thammarat last
 Sunday.

 Meanwhile about 400 army soliders, Border Patrol Police troops and
 para-military rangers were sent to Kanchanaburi to seal off border
 passes which Bang Ron could use to flee the country.

 The forces will also police the border to stem amphetamine inflows
 from Burmese territory controlled by Red Wa rebels.

 Their deployment coincided with an inspection trip to Kanchanaburi's
 border by Lt-Gen Thaveep Suwansing, commander of the First Army
 Region.

 A military source said the Red Wa were recruited by Mon rebels to
 fight Burmese forces based opposite Kanchanaburi 14 years ago and
 had since settled in the area.

 The Red Wa force was estimated to have between 200-300 armed
 guerrillas, the source said,

 Although the Red Wa were still incapable of producing amphetamines
 like their brethen in Burma's Shan state, they were providing
 protection to drug traffickers, the source said.

 Kanchanaburi, according to the source, had become a transit point for
 amphetamines smuggled from the North for distribution in the Central
 Region and the South.

                                                       
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 Last Modified: Wed, Oct 28, 1998
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