LAMPANG BUSY TRANSIT POINT

Lampang has become a major transit point for drugs brought in by
hilltribe traffickers with foreign guerrillas as their guards along
one of three main smuggling routes, according to Lampang governor
Peera Manathas.

The governor has asked the Third Army to move into a mountainous area
bordering Lampang, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Phayao provinces, since
police alone could not suppress a Muser drug gang protected by
foreign guerrillas.

``This is a major loophole which needs to be plugged. The area is
mountainous with bad roads.

``It has become another important drug smuggling route in the North,
although there is no drug-producing plant there,'' he said.

One of the three known smuggling routes in Lampang lies in an area
bordering Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Phayao provinces, passing
through Ko Kha, Muang and Hang Chat districts.