Chiang Mai Troops In Skirmish With Drug Gang

[george]

Chiang Mai troops in skirmish with drug gang

CHIANG MAI: -- Troops in Thailand's northern province of Chiang Mai today engaged in a shoot-out with traffickers from the notorious Kokang drug gang, seizing 300,000 methamphetamine tablets and arresting two suspects.

Undercover troops and narcotics suppression officers hoped to make peaceful arrests this morning when they posed as customers purchasing drugs from traders in Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng district.

But shooting soon broke out, and it was not until five minutes of skirmish had passed that the troops were able to make two arrests, with the remainder of the gang managing to escape.

The two suspects were named as Mr. Ata Laono, 30, and Mrs. Mon Pintakham, 38, both ethnic Shans.

Troops also seized 300,000 methamphetamine tablets in the raid.

Maj. Gen. Manas Paorik, commander of the local military task force, said after the incident that all the drugs seized were old ones which the Kokang group had been stockpiling in Myanmar.

The group operated by transporting the drugs to border villages in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son, before taking them to customers.

The two suspects arrested today, who represent a small fraction of the 20-strong blacklist, have been wanted by the Thai police for some time.

According to Mr. Phittaya Jinawat, Director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board's Northern Office, the drug situation in the northern region has now eased off.

Most of the drugs currently being seized were ones that had been stockpiled for some time on the other side of the Myanmar border, he said, adding that there were now only five drug manufacturing plants across the border, compared to 10 prior to the government's war on drugs last year.

--TNA 2004-09-25

[Thetyim]

So the police raided this gang stronghold with preplanning and every thai member escaped leaving only the foreign members.

The words 'smell' and 'rat' come to mind