METH STILL POURING IN TO THAILAND

A recent US State Department report salutes Thailand's progress in
shutting down international drug traffickers, but much remains to be
done on the home front.

Despite stepped up efforts at suppression by Burmese authorities, huge
quantities of methamphetamines _ known in Thailand as ya ba (crazy
drug) _ are still made in clandestine labs in Burma and smuggled into
Thailand via the common border and through neighbouring countries.
Intelligence sources say that most of the estimated 800 million ya ba
tablets produced annually in Burma enter into Thailand.

According to Sai Kam (not his real name), who works for an
anti-narcotics group in Nam Hkam township of northern Shan State in
Burma, it's actually the Chinese in Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
who control the production, smuggling and distribution of ya ba, and
they are well organised and have a very efficient communications system.

"Cambodia and Laos also produce ya ba but in smaller quantities. Both
countries mostly serve as a transit point for the Burmese-made tablets
coming to Thailand, although production in Cambodia is increasing.
Some ya ba is also produced in Thailand," Sai Kam disclosed. Proof of
this was the raid on a methamphetamine laboratory at Muang Ek housing
estate in Pathum Thani province in May of 2003, when police seized 50
kg of methamphetamine powder and drug-making equipment, along with one
suspect. The police estimated that the amount of powder was enough to
produce several million pills.

Sai Kam explained that the drug gangs had devoted their business to ya
ba production and trafficking to subsidise reduced profits due to
decreased opium and heroin output, and to satisfy the growing number
of addicts who couldn't afford the more expensive heroin. Ya ba has
other advantages over heroin, as it is not dependent on growing
seasons, the precursor chemicals are relatively easy to obtain, and
production facilities can be moved around when necessary. Most
importantly, it yields a higher profit for the investment.

"Northern and especially southern regions of Shan State, near to
Thailand, are the prime ya ba production areas. They are run and
financed by Chinese, Lahu, Pa-O and Shan gangs as well as various
militias. The United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic
Alliance Army (NDAA) have shares in the business as well. Both are
among the 17 armed groups which have made ceasefire agreements with
the Burmese military government. Most of the groups are involved in
the drug business," Sai Kam said.

In Special Region 1 of Northern Shan State on July 9 this year, local
security officials seized 5.6 million ya ba pills and 28 kg of
ephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamines, in Laukkai
township. The Special Region 1 is administrated by a Kokang ceasefire
group _ the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army _ led by Phone
Kyar Shin.

Sai Kam charged that by making deals with the ceasefire groups the
Burmese government has given them authority over the areas, with
disastrous consequences.

"Because these groups are given autonomy, the central government may
not control the ethnic groups in some cases and lawlessness will
prevail. Autonomy (by the ceasefire groups) destroys traditional
culture and environment. People become drug addicts, kill each other,
and it gives opportunities to criminals as well as some top leaders of
ceasefire groups to get involved in the drug trade," said Sai Kam.

A PROFITABLE MARKET

Smuggling of ya ba into Thailand is getting more difficult to detect.
According to defectors from the Karenni People Nationalities
Liberation Front, which is a ceasefire group, ya ba tablets marked
with the UWSA brands "99" and "WY" are packed in plastic bags and
forced down the throats of cows before crossing the border from
Karenni State to Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, where the cows will
be killed and the bags retrieved. The defectors said that their group
was running such an operation. They paid around 17 baht per pill in
Burma, and sold it for 20-50 baht in Thailand, depending on the quality.

Sai Kam gave some more details on how the tablets are smuggled, but
said the traffickers change routes and methods all the time: "The use
of cows and buffaloes is widespread along the Thai-Burmese border.
Traffickers also carry ya ba on horseback or in carts through jungle
routes as well as using cars, boats and planes. The pills will be
concealed in tinned food, timber, bamboo, fish, or packed in sacks of
garlic or green tea, or transported together with grass broom or tree
bark, to mention only a few methods."

"Thailand is a large and profitable market for ya ba, and therefore,
targetted by the producers and smugglers in neighbouring countries.
They figure out that instead of smuggling expensive heroin to the
West, it will be much safer to dump the ya ba pills on the Thai
market. Of course, there must also be a huge distribution network in
the country," Sai Kam said without elaborating.

The most vital chemical required to produce ya ba is ephedrine, which
is produced and smuggled into Burma and other countries from India and
China, which are the biggest producers. Trafficking of ephedrine and
other substances to make amphetamines is a profitable business in
itself. China and India have done their best to stop the smuggling,
and there have been many seizures. But the chemicals are still getting
through somehow.

In Cambodia, the methamphetamine trade is flourishing with increased
production and smuggling, which inevitably brings more addiction. Many
experts agree that most of the more cheaply made methamphetamine which
enters Thailand, which had previously mostly originated in Burma, is
now produced in Cambodia.

The US State Department said in a March 2004 report: "Cambodia has
experienced a significant increase in recent years in the amount of
amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) transiting from the Golden Triangle.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that
100,000 methamphetamine tablets enter Cambodia each day, some 75
percent of which are thought to be exported to Thailand. In addition,
Cambodian authorities believe that foreign crime syndicates, working
in concert with Cambodian nationals, have set up mobile laboratories
within Cambodia that produce ATS for local distribution and export to
Thailand."

A UNODC report issued in June 2003 which surveyed methamphetamine
trafficking warns that Cambodia is poised to be ravaged as drug abuse
grows and transnational crime syndicates dig in.

The report says that seizures of methamphetamines in 2003 had
increased by about 50 percent from a year earlier, while an average of
10 to 20 kilogrammes of heroin is now estimated to be entering
Cambodia from southern Laos each week.

The report also warns that while most of the heroin is shipped out,
methamphetamine usage in Cambodia has jumped and the drug is now
easily available in virtually every urban centre of the country.

Speaking at a rally in June 2004 in Phnom Penh held to mark the United
Nations' International Anti-Drugs Day, Deputy Governor Map Sarin
acknowledged that criminal gangs were trafficking large amounts of
drugs through Cambodia, in particular methamphetamines.

The point was illustrated by the seizure of 600,000 methamphetamine
tablets by Cambodian authorities on September 14 from a speedboat in
the Mekong River near the northern border with Thailand and Laos. Two
Cambodians were arrested in the operation and another one on the next
day. An official described the pill seizure as the largest ever in the
country's history.

In October 2003, Cambodian police seized 35 kg of methamphetamines
destined for Australia and the United States. Five men, including a
Taiwanese national, were arrested.

Laos is also feeling the effects of the methamphetamine craze, with ya
ba pills smuggled from Burma and some local production, although this
is vehemently denied by the Laotian authorities.

According to the US State Department, methamphetamine seizures have
became "a growing problem" in Laos. And according to a Voice of
America report, Laos marked the International Anti-Drugs Day in July
this year by destroying over one million seized methamphetamine tablets.

Unfortunately, despite some significant successes by the Thaksin
government, it is clear that drug networks in Thailand have not been
shut down. Thai police have made several recent seizures in the
millions of ya ba tablets, such as the one on August 8 of this year,
when around 4.4 million pills were discovered in Bang Na district of
Bangkok.

There is no question that the current government is putting a vast
amount of energy and resources into drug suppression. According to
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, drugs seized from 1,166
busts weighing a total of 2,569 kg, including 2,066 kg of
methamphetamines (about 22 million pills), were burned in Ayutthaya in
June this year. Another 22 tons of captured drugs held by the Food and
Drug Administration are awaiting destruction after their use in court
proceedings against suspected traffickers.

US President George W. Bush has just removed Thailand from the annual
list of illicit drug-producing and drug-transit countries, commenting
in a White House press release: "No heroin processing laboratories
have been found in Thailand for several years and Thailand is no
longer a significant direct source of illicit narcotic or psychotropic
drugs or other controlled substances significantly affecting the
United States; nor is it a country through which are transported such
drugs or substances."

As a Bangkok Post editorial noted last week: "The recognition that
Thailand is no longer a major player in world trafficking ... is a
major milestone in the battle against illicit drugs."

However, the battle won't be won on the home front until the
cross-border flow of drugs which continue to ravage the lives of
countless Thais is stopped.