TRAFFICKERS MAY GO FOR NEW STRATEGIES

Big Cities Are Storage And Transit Points

Narcotics officials believe drug syndicates will try to develop new
marketing strategies to avoid arrests following a spate of successful
police crackdowns resulting in the seizure of a large amount of drugs and cash.

They said the anti-narcotics drive during the past two months had seriously
hurt the operations of most drug syndicates associated with the United Wa
State Army (UWSA) in Burma.

Pol Maj-Gen Inthadej Pornpeeraparn, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau deputy
commissioner, said police operations had temporarily frozen the inflow of
drugs and forced drug traders to find new strategies in making deliveries.

With the newly enforced anti-money laundering law, millions of baht worth
of drug money could not be transferred through the banking system, and
millions of methamphetamine tablets believed left in the hands of
syndicates were now vulnerable to police raids.

Drugs dealers would have to use more sophisticated tactics from now to
reach their customers, he said.

Pol Maj-Gen Inthadej said information sharing on drug dealers was badly
needed if the on-going suppression drive was to achieve maximum success.

He said Pol Lt-Gen Priewphan Damapong, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau
commissioner, had emphasised on the need for investigators to try to dig
deeper into every drug case. Information obtained from the probe could lead
them to the key players.

He said drug and money seizures in recent raids in Bangkok was a fine
example of a successful police operation which resulted from information
gained through the seizure of seven million speed pills in Ranong inJanuary.

Chatchai Suthiklom, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics
Control Board (ONCB), said he was alarmed by the massive seizure of drugs
and laundered money by police.

The incidents could be interpreted that drug syndicates were using Bangkok
and other big cities as their storage and transit points for drugs more
than border villages as his agency used to believe in the past.

He said from his intelligence information, drugs were being directly
trafficked to destinations such as Bangkok and other big cities in the
region after crackdowns against them were stepped up along the border.

Mr Chatchai said the ONCB was closely co-ordinating with narcotics police
and other agencies concerned to monitor the movements of drug traffickers
both inside and outside the country.

The 30 million baht seized by police this week was handed to the Money
Laundering Commission yesterday.