BURMA SHOOTS THAI DRUG INFORMANT IN BOTCH-UP

Rangoon Asked to Stop Heroin Dealers, But Wrong Man Shot

A police drugs "sting" went badly wrong when Burmese officials shot a Thai
informant and seized nearly 38kg of heroin in Burma's Tachilek border town
_ following a tip-off from Thai border authorities.

Now the Narcotics Suppression Division is asking Burma to hand back the
informant, who was wounded.

Pol Maj-Gen Adithep Panjamanont, the division commander, said the arrest
and shooting of Noppakhun Duangkham, 27, by Burmese security officials on
April 1 was a misunderstanding.

Mr Noppakhun was not a drug trafficker, Pol Maj-Gen Adithep said.

He was a police informant who had connections with a Thai drug dealer who
was able to contact Wa traffickers for supplies of heroin.

Mr Noppakhun drove a Land Rover from Mae Sai to Tachilek to pick up the
heroin after a police sting operation in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai was
blown, said Pol Maj-Gen Adithep.

The sting initially called for the delivery of the drugs in front of a
hotel in Mae Sai to undercover police posing as buyers. It was hoped a drug
network would be exposed.

The plan was called off at the last minute when the Wa became suspicious
and told the Thai dealer to pick up the heroin in Tachilek instead.

Mr Noppakhun was sent as a go-between to buy the heroin in Tachilek. The
dealers agreed to load the drugs aboard the vehicle but declined to
accompany Mr Noppakhun back to Mae Sai, where payment was supposed to be made.

Pol Maj-Gen Adithep said Mr Noppakhun parked the vehicle in front of Dipa
Kyaw Bazaar near the border bridge in Tachilek.

A few minutes later a group of Wa drug dealers arrived, loaded the drugs
onto the vehicle and told Mr Noppakhun to return to Mae Sai and then bring
back the money for the heroin.

However, Burmese security officials decided to inspect the vehicle.

Two people aboard the vehicle resisted the inspection, leading to a scuffle
and brief clash in which Mr Noppakhun was shot in the leg.

When the vehicle initially failed to return, Thai drugs officials realised
something had gone wrong.

Pol Col Auayporn Jintakanont, deputy commander of the narcotics suppression
division 1, contacted the Thai joint chairman of the Township Border
Committee, Col Surasak Boonsiri,

He asked Burmese authorities to help block the escape of the heroin dealers
and capture them.

When Burmese security officials moved in, Mr Noppakhun was shot and wounded
in the leg.

Pol Maj-Gen Adithep denied his sting operation was initially planned to be
made inside Burma, and said it was not necessary to give advance
information to Burmese authorities.

Rangoon was disturbed over the incident, insisting there was no advance
co-ordination and Thai officials made contact through the local border
committee office only at the last minute after the plan went awry.

It was unclear whether Rangoon had filed charges against Mr Noppakhun, who
was believed to have been sent for further interrogation in Rangoon.