Chiang Rai News
Meth Behind Chinese Mekong Deaths
A Thai police officer keeps watch in front of bags of drugs before they were destroyed
The arrests last Friday of nine Thai Army officers for the Oct. 5 murders of 13 Chinese seamen spotlight a horrific crime. But the affair is part of a bigger story of how the so-called Golden Triangle of Burma, Laos and Thailand is shifting to become the locus of massive methamphetamine production, and how complicit some units of the Thai army appear to be in the operations.
The nine have pleaded not guilty to murdering the 13, who were on two Chinese freighters allegedly carrying nearly a million amphetamine pills on the Mekong River. Thai Army Maj-Gen Prakarn Chonlayuth, who commands the Pa Muang Task Force which included the nine arrested officers, speculated that a minority ethnic Shan warlord, Nor Kham, based in Burma, had arranged the execution of the 13 Chinese seamen.
Prakarn suggested to reporters that the Shan warlord was extorting protection money from ships on the Mekong and, if owners refused to pay, the Shan gang would kill the crews, hijack the vessels and use the ships for smuggling drugs. No evidence has emerged, however, of anyone else’s involvement in the case aside from the nine Thai army officers, although investigations were continuing.
Chinese victims had been blindfolded, tied up and shot, according to Thai and Chinese media
All of the Chinese victims had been blindfolded, tied up and shot, according to Thai and Chinese media. In their defense, the army officers said they had heard about the assault on the ships by hijackers and later also boarded them, but announced they had discovered 920,000 hidden amphetamine pills and one dead Chinese crew member. A few days later, 12 other Chinese corpses appeared floating in the Mekong, prompting urgent demands by Beijing for Bangkok to investigate the case and punish the killers.
It is a major concern. The murders became a major point of contention between the two countries, with the Chinese suspending all shipping between Thailand and China on the Mekong.
The river has become an increasingly lucrative transshipment route for both countries after China dynamited sections of the river to widen it, streamlined import and export procedures, and improved shipping support facilities. It is also the focus of rising irritation on the part of local companies that are finding themselves increasingly squeezed out by Chinese shippers. According to Xinhua, 116 of the 130 ships involved in international shipping on the Mekong are operated by Chinese companies. They carry a total of 400,000 tons of cargo each way on that stretch of the river, which is flanked by Burma and Laos.
The Golden Triangle is a mountainous region that has been outlaw territory for decades, since Chinese Kuomintang generals led their refugee troops to the area following Chiang Kai-shek’s defeat by Mao Zedong’s Communists. Drug warlords have amassed vast wealth over the decades. It is an area of almost a million square kilometers that comprises some of the most extensive opium-producing areas of Asia, now surpassed only by Afghanistan, which has regained its title of the world’s biggest exporter despite the occupation of the NATO powers.
“There are few who doubt the involvement [direct or indirect] of Nor Kham, the godfather of the protection ring whose members have been collecting fees from ships and traders crisscrossing and plying the Mekong,” said a report by the Shan Herald Agency for News, a nonprofit group in Shan state. It added that those who didn’t play by his rules are often shot.
Although opium production has been going on since the 1920s, the drug lords have recently expanded to include the manufacturing of amphetamine-type stimulants, abbreviated as ATS, because pills, called ya ba in Thailand, are easier to make and do not depend on seasonal farming conditions or high mountains where opium poppies thrive. In February 2010, authorities seized nearly 22 million meth pills in Laos, one of the largest seizures ever recorded in the region. “These drugs are affordable, easy to manufacture and highly profitable for criminal groups,” Gary Lewis, a Bangkok-based regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a September summary of a 124-page report titled, “Amphetamines & Ecstasy: 2011 Global ATS Assessment.”
“In our region, ATS are often associated with a modern and dynamic lifestyle. Users don’t face the sort of stigma associated with ‘old-fashioned’ modes of drug administration such as injecting or smoking. This demand offers criminals entry into fresh and lucrative markets,” Lewis said.
There seem to be plenty of those. The East and Southeast Asian regions, home to about a third of the global population, have become one of the most established ATS markets in the world, according to the global assessment report, primarily for methamphetamine. It is estimated that between 3.5 million to 20.9 million persons in the region have used amphetamine stimulants ATS in the past year.
“They have emerged as the primary drug threat in recent years, displacing traditionally used plant-based drugs such as heroin, opium and cannabis. The injecting use of methamphetamine and its associated negative health consequences is reported as a growing problem in the region.”
Overall, the report continued, the number of illicit ATS laboratories dismantled between 2004 and 2009 increased significantly, from just 13 to 458, with the largest number reported in China. “Trafficking patterns in East and Southeast Asia have also shifted during the past few years, particularly in the Greater Mekong sub-region, which includes Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar [Burma], Thailand, Vietnam and the bordering southern provinces of China.
Officials in Thailand inspect methamphetamine pills seized during raids
The 93.3 million methamphetamine pills seized in 2009 in China, Laos, Burma and Thailand were a three-fold jump over 2008. That was easily surpassed in 2010, with total seizures of 144 million pills.
“This increased trafficking of methamphetamine pills from Burma to markets in the region was reflected by the single seizure of nearly 22 million methamphetamine pills in February 2010 in Laos, one of the largest seizures ever in the region,” the report stated.
Nearly 50 million methamphetamine pills were seized in Thailand alone during 2010, compared to 27 million in the previous year, according to the UNODC. Although meth production in the Golden Triangle has dropped dramatically, according to the UNODC report, the manufacture of crystalline meth has soared. Thailand has one of the largest markets for methamphetamine pills in the region. It remains the most common form of drug use in the country, although crystal meth has become increasingly widespread.
During the 1990s, Burma-based rebels known as the United Wa State Army (UWSA) dominated parts of the Mekong river’s western shore and allegedly trafficked drugs throughout the region and overseas. Several years ago, Washington issued an arrest warrant for the UWSA’s rebel leader, Wei Hsueh-kang, for alleged involvement in illegal drugs. However, in mid-October, the UWSA issued a statement denying any links to the murder of the 13 Chinese.
The ethnic Wa and Shan are among several minority groups in northeast Burma involved in drugs while simultaneously fighting for autonomy or independence against the regime in Burma.
Richard S Ehrlich – Freelance Writer
Police in Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai Province have arrested a 50 year old man after the threatened to rape a 20 year-old woman and the proceeded to murder her 2 and half month old baby.
Police with doctors from Wiang Kaen Hospital and the Chao Luang Wiang Kaen Welfare Association were summoned to the scene of the incident to a 2-story cement house, Village No. 2, Tha Kham Subdistrict, Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai
On arrival they found Ms. Chanikarn, age 20, in a state of distress crying uncontrollably beside her 2 and a half month baby girl (Linlada) that was dead on the floor.
After calming Ms. Chanikarn, the child’s mother, said that at approximately 2:30 p.m she was out to collect diapers that had been dried in front of the house, while her 2 and a half month old daughter was sleep on the ground floor of the house.
She said she was suddenly approached by a Mr. Lee, about 40 years old, who lived on the opposite side of the road. He came towards her and grabbed her arm and threatened her saying if she didn’t sleeping with him he will go and kill his daughter.
Miss Chanikan refused and ran away, then Mr. Lee then walked into the house and grabbed Ms. Linlada’s leg, smashing the child’s head against the cement floor of the house. The infant died immediately.
Mr. Lee then just walked away and returned to his own home, leaving Miss Chanikan and her dead baby.
When police went to Mr. Lee’s home he immediately confessed killing the infant and was taken to Wiang Kaen Police Station for further questioning. Under caution he told police that he was sexually attracted to Miss Chanikan‘s and when her husband leave for work he took the opportunity to approach her.
He said when he saw her husband leave he crossed that road and found Miss Chanikan in the yard alone, he then threatened her to sleep with him, saying he would kill her child if she didn’t have sex with him. However when she refused he flew into a fit of rage walked into her home and murdered he baby. He said he was out of control with rage.
After killing the infant he walk across the street to his home and waited for the police to arrive. The police have charged him with premeditated murder and attempted rape. He is being held without bail at the local remand center.
Meanwhile, Miss Chanikan and her family were preparing a religious burial ceremony for the child.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
CHIANG RAI: Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, Assigned Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai Pitanilabut, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Police/Deputy Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, has launched the operation ‘Bombing the Thieves’ Bridge’ in collaboration with the CAT Office, G., mobile phone network operators AIS DTAC TRUE NT, and local security agencies to cut the mobile phone signal and WiFi internet that criminals illegally use to deceive Thai citizens.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai stated that they will begin pressing the first action of the ‘Explosion of Thieves’ Bridge’ in Chiang Rai Province toward the thieves’ base of operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
The territory surrounding King Roman in Laos. King Roman is now a full-service entertainment destination with an airport that welcomes travelers from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, he explained.
According to Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai, this operation will have no influence on honest people along the Thai border, and it will only target cyber criminals.
They will also increase the arrest and prosecution of unlawful service towers, such as SIM booths, which allow gangs register SIM cards to swindle the people. Dealing with criminal organizations of foreigners and Thais who band together to deceive and damage Thais.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) suspended more than three million SIM cards on July 16 because the holders had not verified their identities with their mobile phone operators by the deadline, in accordance with the NBTC’s measures to combat alleged fraudsters’ mule accounts.
The names of the holders of 80 million mobile phone numbers used for mobile banking transactions did not match the names associated with the mobile banking accounts.
The NBTC would require mobile phone companies to authenticate SIM card holders and the names of their mobile banking accounts. The verification procedure is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.
In addition, the NBTC and Royal Thai Police have collaborated to combat illegal telecom towers throughout the country’s borders, disconnecting signals at 465 places, altering antenna direction at 470 towers, and dismantling antennas at 179 locations.
They are certain that the move will disrupt contact center gangs and other types of technology-based crime.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
Police in Mae Chan, Chiang Rai, shot and killed a 28-year-old man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete. The officer was slashed in the right leg with the machete.
According to police, the culprit, known only as Mr. Toon, had been harassing local villagers in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai, threatening them with a knife and using violet insults.
The village headman arrived on the scene to try to calm Mr. Toon, but he was shouting hysterically and taking swipes at him with the machete, so he contacted the police.
When the responding officer arrived at the site about 9 p.m., he attempted to calm the man, but he instead assaulted the officer, slashing his right leg with the machete. In self-defense, the cop had to fire his gun at Mr. Toon, striking him in the chest.
Mr. Toon and the policeman were taken to Mae Chan Hospital, where Mr. Toon died of a gunshot wound. Pol Sgt. Sutthikiat Phanomphraisakul was released from the hospital after receiving numerous stitches for his injuries.
Local police received a tip around 9.30 p.m. yesterday that a guy was causing mayhem in the village. When authorities arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Toon strolling along a public road, holding a large knife and threatening people. Mae Chan district officials attempted to contain the incident.
During a search of Mr. Toon’s home, authorities discovered methamphetamine consumption equipment. Locals told authorities that the man was addicted to Yaba (Methamphetamine) and an alcoholic.
The authorities are conducting an inquiry to determine Toon’s motivations and whether any underlying issues contributed to his violent outburst.
Other related news:
Chiang Mai Police Offer Cash Reward After Officer Killed
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/crime/chiang-mai-police-offer-reward/
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