RETURN OF A DANGEROUS POWDER

DIRTY BUSINESS: Whether for domestic abuse or just passing through, heroin
appears to be making a comeback in Thailand

Sithichai Sukhathip had a very special mobile phone number for those who
knew it. One call settled prices, delivery schedules, terms of payment and
the amount of heroin or methamphetamine the caller wanted.

At the age of 32, Sithichai was a rich man. Even while he was serving a
life imprisonment term in his detention cell inside the Khong Phai Prison
in Nakhon Ratchsima's Si Khiew District, his mobile phone kept him busy
dealing drugs.

No one knows how long Sithichai ran his drug trading operation from his
prison cell before authorities found out about it last month.

Before his arrest and imprisonment, Sithichai turned up frequently on
police records as a major drug distributor for Wei Hsueh Kang, a long-
wanted narcotics kingpin of the United Wa State Army.

Before that, Sithichai worked for Khun Sa, before the drug warlord
surrendered to the Burmese authorities in 1996.

Sithichai was born Ar-zuan sae Lee, a Chinese Haw from along the northern
border of Mae Hong Son Province. Police said that this is where he began
supplying heroin and amphetamines to dealers and retailers across Thailand.

Sithichai was arrested late in 1997 when he delivered 21 kilogrammes of
heroin to a client waiting in a hotel on Sukhumvit. The Criminal Court and
the Appeals Court sentenced him to a life term; he is appealing to the
Supreme Court.

Following the discovery of Sithichai's drug dealing business within the
penal institution, drug suppression agents arrested those who helped him.
Authorities dismissed and charged several prison officials, including the
prison commander, Somsak Saraphol.

A narcotics suppression agent told Sunday Perspective: "These corrupt
officials provided Sithichai with everything he wanted and turned a blind
eye to what he was doing in the cell."

Sithichai's men working outside the prison gave the corrupt officials money
in return for their ignorance. The prison commander received a new Mercedes
sedan.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) recently seized 20 million baht
worth of Sithichai's assets , including the former prison commander's new car.

"We believe this is only part of his ill-gotten wealth. We are
investigating. He may have hidden up to a hundred million baht," says a source.

Heroin Busts UP

At a press conference early last month the man who directed the prison
raid, Justice Minister Purachai Piemsomboon, said the Sithichai case is
indicative of the influence of drug money and the dangers of the illegal
drug trade.

Several drug suppression officers told Sunday Perspectivethis week that
"Sithichai sold various drugs, but it was mostly heroin. This confirms that
it is not only amphetamines that threaten us today, but also the more
dangerous heroin."

The past years saw drug suppression officials focusing on the amphetamine
trade, and rarely making busts for heroin. However, said one official:
"There may have been less heroin sold these past few years, but we believe
it is time to re-examine the heroin situation. Heroin seizures recently
have been going up."

Mr Chartichai Suthikrom, deputy secretary-general of the Office of
Narcotics Control Board, confirmed that Thai authorities are seizing more
heroin.

According to Mr Chartichai, heroin seizures in the past decade averaged at
less than 400 kilogrammes a year. They began to increase in the year 2001,
however. In the first nine months of 2002, officials seized 500 kilogrammes
of heroin. Another 300 kilogrammes was impounded in the last three months
of the year.

Some experts say the increasing amounts of seized heroin indicate an
increasing volume of heroin circulating in the market, as well as a bigger
demand.

Heroin was the most dangerous and the most popular of illegal drugs in
1950s, when Thailand officially banned opium cultivation.

Despite the ban, heroin remained the leading illegal substance in Thailand
until the 1980s, when tough suppression measures successfully reduced
heroin consumption and trafficking.

Drug dealers then diversified into other drugs such as cocaine, LSD and
lately, amphetamines.

Officials are worried that the increasing heroin availability will worsen
the drug addiction problem in Thailand. Several drug suppression officials
fear that heroin _ which has more dangerous effects than amphetamines _ may
find its way to children in schools. Amphetamine addiction is easier to
cure than heroin addiction.

"The situation could get worse," said one bureau official.

Thailand is Transit Point

Mr Chartichai, however, says these fears may be unfounded. "The increasing
volume of seized heroin does not necessarily represent higher domestic
production or demand.

"Most of the seizures are of wholesalers; there are very few arrests of
retailers," he said.

Many drug suppression officials prefer to believe that the heroin seized in
Thailand was destined to a third country. Confessions of those arrested
bear that out, a police informant said.

Other ranking officials note that there are more Amphetamine than heroin
addicts. Official estimates say about three million people use
amphetamines, and 300,000 people are hardcore addicts.

"But we have to be on alert to prevent heroin from reaching the local
users," he added.

He said suppression of amphetamines has been successful at a certain level.
Over 400 million Amphetamine tablets were impounded last year.

"I think we are controlling the spread of amphetamines very well now. So
what we have to do now is prevent heroin from returning," said Chartichai.

But even officials who doubt the re-emergence of heroin on the streets of
Bangkok are worried that Thailand may return as a major drug transit route.
Officials have felt confident that Thailand had ceased to be a major drug
route after heroin shipments from the Golden Triangle were drastically
curtailed. The traffic was rerouted to China and other markets and routes.

Police records show that the new routes take drug shipments from the Golden
Triangle, pass through Yunnan, which adjoins north Burma, pass through
agricultural land to Kanming Kwang Cho,and then to the ports of Shanghai. A
good bit of the heroin, however, is sold in China.

China's improved infrastructure system, with better roads and communication
equipment has helped the drug trade to reroute.

The Chinese government did not pay much attention since the official line
was that they "did not have a drug problem like in Thailand."

The past four years have seen an official recognition that there is a
serious drug problem in China. In 2000, China began to implement harsher
measures to suppress heroin movements, including quick court proceedings to
sentence drug suspects.

It was recently reported that China smashed drug production centres in Pang
Zang, near the Burma border. Here, various outlawed Burmese minority groups
work in drug production sites.

"We received reports that most of the drug laboratories on the Chinese
border were destroyed, with a hundred drug traffickers sentenced to death,"
a Thai official said.

China has been seizing on average around 12 tonnes of heroin in recent
years. This may be a reason why drug traders are returning to their old
routes in Thailand.

Drug suppression authorities believe that at least 60 drug laboratories lie
along the Thai-Burma and the China-Burma borders inside the Golden
Triangle. Another 20 production labs are in Laos and Cambodia. All are
capable of producing amphetamine and heroin.

Following the harsh suppression drives by Thailand and China, sources say
most of the 60 labs moved to Laos, just across the Thai border.

The Golden Triangle is the world's second largest heroin production site.
Each year, some 500,000 rai (about 230,000 acres) in the Golden Triangle
are planted with poppy. This yields about 1,800 tonnes of heroin, a little
less than Afghanistan's poppy fields.

Local drug suppression officials admit that controlling drug traffickers is
not easy. "Sometimes it is a hide-and-seek game," one said.

Mr Chartichai warns that after many years of absence, heroin could return
to Thailand in full force.

Authorities should anticipate the problem and prevent a serious situation
in the future, he said. However, he admits, "I am not worried that heroin
will be widespread in Thailand."

Only Two Choices

Interior Minister Pol Capt Purachai says the dangers of the heroin network
can be contained with the determination of honest officials.

To show the government's serious intent and to convince the public "that
the war on drugs is not impossible," the Justice Minister said that
authorities have smashed major drug networks last year.

Aside from Sithichai Sukhathip, police have also made the following big
arrests:

* The network of Surasakdi Chantradraprasart, a large-scale drug dealer of
ice (100 percent pure heroin base), which is used by some Bangkok youths in
discos and other entertainment places.

* The network of the Malaysian national, Lu Liew Zing or Ar-meng, who
operates large restaurants and karaoke lounges in Hat Yai, Songkhla. He
also exported heroin and imported amphetamines. The state seized part of
his assets, worth 6 million baht.

* The network of Somkiat Hoonbamrueng, a major distributor of amphetamines
and heroin in the south, based in Surath Thani. The state seized assets
worth 60 million baht from him.

* The network of Jaimul Taomula, a major drug dealer in the northern
region. He imported amphetamines from minority groups in Burma and
distributed these to retailers in the north. The state has seized his
assets worth 26 million baht.

* Phairath Toviset, who ran a trafficking network in Ratchaburi. The state
seized his assets worth 10 million baht.

* A Singaporean national, Luang, who was a heroin agent for the United Wa
State Army, for export of heroin to Switzerland.

* Prasert Laonapharung, 42, was arrested in Bangkok in 1995 and a major
drug ring crushed. The state seized his assets worth 500 million baht.

"These arrests are not the last," says Pol Capt Purachai.

"There will be more shortly. The war on drugs is going on and it will
become harsher. And when we say drugs. we mean not only amphetamines or
heroin but all other illicit drugs," he said.

When Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared an all-out war against drug
dealers last week, he set April 30 as the deadline for provincial
authorities and the police to clean "every inch" of Thailand from drugs.

Interior Minister Wan Muhamed Nor Matha says authorities must have a list
of drug dealers and users in their district by February 1.

Justice Minister Pol Capt Purachai issued a serious warning to drug
dealers: "You have only two choices: be arrested or be killed."