Guerillas take over Golden Triangle drug trade

MAE HONGSON, Thailand, April 3 (Reuter) Heroin factories in the Golden
Triangle are flourishing again as they once did under nowretired drug
warlord Khun Sa but this time at the direction of his longtime rivals,
ethnic Wa guerrillas.

Khun Sa's former turf has been taken over by the United Wa State Army
(UWSA), a splinter group of the Burmese Communist Party in northern Burma's
Shan state which maintains a ceasefire with the military government in
Rangoon, sources with Thai and U.S. antinarcotics authorities told Reuters.

The factories in the state's opium poppygrowing area formerly belonged
to Khun Sa, the halfShan, halfChinese leader of the now defunct Mong Tai
Army (MTA), which controlled the opium trade while fighting the Burmese
government for Shan state independence.

``The information we have is, the United Wa State Army has resumed much
of the drugs production and activities from the Shan United Army (MTA),''
said a drug enforcement officer with the U.S. embassy in Bangkok.

Opium is refined into heroin. The Golden Triangle, which straddles the
borders of Laos, Thailand and Burma, is said by U.S. drug enforcement
officials to supply about 70 percent of the world's heroin.

Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese authorities in January 1996 and is
believed by antidrug officials to be living in luxury in Rangoon. Burma has
said Khun Sa, who is wanted by U.S. authorities, will not be extradited.

Golden Triangle heroin production went into hiatus during the power
vacuum following Khun Sa's surrender.

But the United Wa State Army had since taken over several former MTA
jungle bases in defiance of demands by Burma's ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) that it pull out of the area, the Thai sources
said.

``The heroin factories that used to belong to Khun Sa such as Doi Lang
and Hauy Maekham are now under the control of the Wa,'' a Thai narcotics
officer told Reuters.

The Wa took over the heroin factories after Wei Siao Gang, who is wanted
by the United States for drug trafficking, was appointed commander of UWSA
forces near the Thai border late last year, replacing Tei Kung Ming, who was
murdered in China, a Thai police source said.

Wei Siao Gang and his brother Wei Siao Long are longtime, bitter rivals
of Khun Sa in the drug trade.

``The Wei brothers are the new drug kings in the Golden Triangle,'' the
narcotics officer said.

Doi Lang is a former Khun Sa stronghold while Hauy Maekhan was believed
to have housed one of his biggest heroin factories.

A journalist who visited the areas last week confirmed heavy deployments
of Wa guerrillas in the two places.

``Every month, the Wa produce at least 140 kg (309 lb) of heroin from
these two factories,'' said another Thai antinarcotics source based in
northern Thailand.

He estimated that the Wa produced at least two tonnes of heroin annually.

Khun Sa's former headquarters at Ho Mong in Shan state is now a ghost
town. At the height of his power, Ho Mong housed more than 12,000 people who
enjoyed such amenities as a school, hospital, electricity and karaoke bars.