EX-WIFE OF MYANMAR DRUG LORD ARRESTED ON HEROIN CHARGES: THAI POLICE

BANGKOK, Jan 22 (AFP) - The former wife of Myanmar drug warlord Khun Sa and
five accomplices have been arrested on charges of smuggling nearly 60 kilos
of heroin into the United States, Thai police said Monday.

Peng Hui-Lan, the 54-year-old former common law wife of the ailing drug
baron, was detained here Friday along with two other Myanmar nationals, one
Chinese and two Thais, the Narcotic Suppression Bureau (NSB) said.

NSB Commissioner Lieutenant General Preophan Dhamapong said the arrest was
a joint operation by Thai anti-narcotics police and the US Drug Enforcement
Agency.

US embassy officials said the investigation began last October when a probe
into a major heroin trafficking operation resulted in the seizure of 1.4
kilos of Southeast Asian heroin in New York City.

Earlier this month, US agents there uncovered another haul of about 57
kilos of top-grade heroin.

The embassy officials said the probe was not related to Operation Tiger
Trap, which earlier this month netted Khun Sa's former private secretary
Yang Wan-Hsuan.

Yang, known by his alias Lao Tai, will be sent to the United States to face
trial on drug trafficking charges after being arrested in the northern
province of Chiang Rai.

Thai police said Lao Tai maintained close links to his former boss, who was
until recently the most powerful figure in the notorious golden triangle
opium producing area that straddles Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.

Khun Sa ostensibly withdrew from the drugs business in 1996 after the
signing of a ceasefire between Myanmar's military junta and his Mon Tai
Army, which had been waging a separatist rebellion for two decades.

Also wanted by the United States, Khun Sa, 64, now lives in Yangon,
apparently with total immunity and the protection of the secret services.

He is believed to have laundered his drug profits through Yangon hotels and
other business interests, and to still be an influential figure in the
narcotics trade despite his failing health.

Myanmar government officials do not deny that Khun Sa lives freely in
Yangon, but argue that the deal with him was necessary to restrict the
production of opium in Shan state, the biggest producer-region.

Khun Sa lives alone in Yangon but is thought at one time to have at least
one legal wife and another common law partner or "minor wife".