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South China Morning Post
Monday, January
10, 2000
THAILAND
Air officials
accused of aiding drug lords
JAMES EAST in Bangkok Corrupt officials at Bangkok's international airport are helping ship drugs
abroad, a leading security source said.
The expert, who advises international airlines on security measures, said well-connected drug lords had little problem smuggling narcotics overseas. "It is a pretty easy way to smuggle out drugs, especially for people who are familiar with the airport. If you want to smuggle out huge quantities you put it in cargo," said the source. The drug kingpins often betray their small-time couriers or tourists duped into carrying packages. They are sacrificed to Customs officials to help them convince foreign governments funding their work that their anti-smuggling campaigns are working. Thailand's jails are full of Africans serving life sentences for smuggling heroin. Many say they were conned into running drugs or were surprised to find that Customs officials knew where to find the packages. Police and aviation officials are now targeting the country's domestic airports in the latest attempt to shut drug routes originating in the Golden Triangle. Millions of amphetamine pills and kilograms of refined opium are churned out of jungle factories before being smuggled across the border. Traffickers are now hopping on to domestic flights, flying their narcotic loads to other parts of Thailand or into Bangkok and then on to Europe and the United States. The Government, which is under increasing pressure to crack down, has ordered the Narcotics Control Board and aviation chiefs to smash the operation. It has given authorities a week to come up with measures. Seventy sniffer dogs have been sent to northern domestic airports to hunt out drugs stashed in cargo and passenger baggage. More X-ray machines may be installed and rules governing cargo shipments and air post will be tightened. On Friday, police charged Japanese woman Tamaki Nagayama, 29, with attempting to smuggle 1,300 "speed" pills on board a Thai Airways flight to Osaka. A Thai woman and a Burmese man linked to the offence were later arrested. In a separate incident last week, officers accidentally stumbled across 2.6 million pills at a Bangkok housing estate. The drugs were from the north. |