TRAFFICKING OF HEROIN FROM BURMA DIVERTED ELSEWHERE

Kingdom has lost its through-route status

Thailand is no longer a popular through-route for the trafficking of heroin
from Burma to other nations.

However, it is now a market for amphetamines, marijuana and ecstasy pills
coming in from neighbouring countries.

Four to five years ago Thailand was the favoured country for moving drugs
out of Burma but tough action, particularly by the Border Patrol Police
during the last government of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, has clamped down on
the smuggling.

Several drug suppression agencies have set up local units along the
850km-border which runs along the northern provinces of Mae Hong Son,
Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. These are opposite the heroin-production bases
in Burma.

The action means that drug producers are now transporting heroin via
Burma's Shan state to the southern Chinese town of Kunming. From there it
goes to Europe, America and other Southeast Asian nations. The new route is
protected by thick jungle.

Transportation involves either a caravan of animals or boats along the
Salween river. The drugs are then loaded onto vehicles to take them to
Kunming. They then go either direct to overseas markets or via Laos and
Vietnam.

Despite former drug lord Khun Sa's surrender to the Burmese junta two years
ago, opium plantations and heroin production remain under the control of
ethnic groups and former followers of Khun Sa.

Border police said the activities help raise money for their movements.

However, cheaper-to-use amphetamines are flooding into Thailand to meet
demand from labourers and students.

Burma is also the source and there are plenty of production bases near
Thailand's northern provinces.

Cambodia is another source, with the drug produced in areas opposite the
Thai border from Rayong up to Si Sa Ket province.

Laos supplies marijuana with plantations common in Savannakhet opposite
Nakhon Phanom.

Border police said the Laotian authorities supported marijuana growing as a
way of generating foreign exchange for national development projects.

And the South is the gateway for ecstasy tablets, which are smuggled in
from Singapore.