MAE HONGSON, Thailand (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.