CRACK DOWN ON CRIME BOSSES - ONCB

The government should step up its crackdown on "influential people" in
seven western and central provinces, plus some southern provinces where
drug trafficking is still going on, the Office of the Narcotics Control
Board has recommended.

A Government House source said the proposal was made by ONCB
secretary-general Chidchai Wannasathit, during the mobile Cabinet meeting
in Lamphun last week.

Chidchai told the Cabinet the government should crack down on influential
people in Tak, Uthai Thani, Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Kanchanaburi,
Suphan Buri and Nakhon Pathom, the source said.

He also asked the government to target influential people in several
southern provinces including Satun, Trang and Songkhla, explaining that the
trading and smuggling of drugs, arms and contraband was still going on in
these areas.

Chidchai, who heads the board's anti-drug operations centre, reported to
the Cabinet that 313 suspected mafia bosses and 2,525 "general influential
people" had been blacklisted in line with the government's policy to fight
dark influences.

Another 1,793 suspected influential people had been kept under close watch,
he told the Cabinet.