Thailand seizes heroin from Khun Sa remnants

BANGKOK, June 16 (Reuter) Thai border patrol police said on Monday that
they had clashed with armed remnants of former Burmese opium warlord Khun
Sa's group and seized 7.7 kgs (16.9 lbs) of heroin from them near the
ThaiBurmese border.

A police officer in northern Mae Hong Son province told Reuters that a
threehour clash occurred early on Monday morning between police and drugs
traffickers at western Pai District about three kms (1.2 miles) from the
Burmese border.

He said police, armed with mortars and automatic rifles, killed a member of
the group led by Lee Wei Ming, an active former lieutenant of Khun Sa,
before pushing it back across the mountainous border.

The officer said the group was intercepted by police while it attempted to
deliver the drugs to buyers in Thailand.

Khun Sa, who used to control poppy growing and the opium trade in Shan state
in northeastern Burma, surrendered to Burmese military authorities in
January 1996. He is said to be living in luxury in Rangoon and has not been
tried yet for his crimes.

Police sources said Lee Wei Ming's group operated about six heroin
refineries along the border, which formed part of the opium growing Golden
Triangle where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet.