NATIONWIDE CRACKDOWN ON SPEED PILLS TO BE LAUNCHED

Swoop On Targets In Northeast Tomorrow

A nationwide methamphetamine crackdown will be carried out as part of a
collaboration between the Office of the Narcotics Control Board and police.

A blanket operation concentrating on known methamphetamine-producing areas
will be launched in the Northeast tomorrow.

ONCB secretary-general Sorasit Saenprasert told the Bangkok Post that the
PM's Office is determined to destroy drug manufacturing and distribution
networks.

The crackdown would depend on intelligence-gathering efforts used to
identify the networks.

A suppression plan has been drawn up to raid and shut down targeted areas.
The first suppression unit has been dispatched to infiltrate 202 areas in
the Northeast, where a number of arrests have been made.

Mr Sorasit said a similar operation would get underway in Bangkok tomorrow,
concentrating in 15 areas where speed pills are thought to be produced and
stored.

Speed producers have been forced to move their operations to the capital to
escape effective border patrols. Large quantities of the drug have already
been smuggled in from the border.

The suppression drive kicks off in the South on June 10.

Mr Sorasit said the northern offensive would begin by the end of the month.
A special task force would search 59 suspected drug zones in the North where
"the cycle of narcotics comes to a full circle".

He was confident that a new law allowing for the seizure of personal assets
acquired through drugs would further weaken the drug networks.

The law is considered part of another law on money laundering.

Mr Sorasit said 1,062-million-baht worth of assets had been temporarily
impounded since 1992 from state officials allegedly involved in the drug
trade.