Thailand's 1st Judicially Approved Wiretap Helps Bust Drug Trafficking Network

[Jai Dee]

Thailand's 1st judicially approved wiretap helps bust drug trafficking network

New York: An international heroin trafficking organization that processed drugs from Pakistan and Afghanistan through a storefront in Thailand has been busted with help from wiretap recordings authorized by Thailand judicial authorities, prosecutors said.

Two of three men from Thailand extradited to the United States to face drug charges made initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where they were ordered held without bail Thursday in a case authorities said processed more than $30 million (€23.2 million) in drug money.

The extraditions resulted from Operation Ivory Triangle, an investigation of drug networks in Bangkok, Lagos, Nigeria, and New York.

Prosecutors said the networks distributed heroin received from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and northern Thailand throughout the world, including the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The U.S. government has tried over the past decade to broaden the number of countries through which it can investigate problems like drugs and terrorism in cooperation with foreign governments.

An indictment in the case said government evidence against the men included recordings captured by a wiretap authorized by the Supreme Court of Thailand. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia credited the Royal Thai Police law enforcement officers as playing a key role in the probe.

Garcia's spokeswoman, Rebekah Carmichael, said prosecutors could not comment on the extent of help from Thailand authorities in the probe and whether the cooperation was enhanced or harmed by a military coup in September that ousted Thailand's prime minister.

In an indictment, prosecutors said that a heroin business operating out of a Thai storefront provided packages of drugs that human couriers swallowed or hid inside secret compartments in suitcases as they carried them through complex distribution routes.

To get to New York, the drugs sometimes went through Pakistan, Europe, Cuba, Mexico and Miami, prosecutors said.

The route was expensive: Heroin bought for $3,500 (€2,709) to $6,000 (€4,643) per kilogram in Thailand eventually was resold in the United States for as much as $100,000 (€77,387) per kilogram, the U.S. government said.

If convicted as leaders of the drug organization, which was headquartered in Bangkok, the men each could face at least 10 years in prison and up to life in prison.

Source: International Herald Tribune - 19 January 2007

[Chang_paarp]

Bet they are glad they are being prosecuted in the US.

[astral]

Thailand's 1st judicially approved wiretap .............

Does this mean that there have been other wiretaps that were NOT approved?

10 years hardly seems long enough.