Army Tightens Drug Controls Along Isaan Border

Army tightens drug controls along Isaan border

SURIN: -- The Royal Thai Army today called for the tightening of screws on drug traffickers operating in the border region between Cambodia and Laos and Thailand's lower Northeast.

Maj. Gen. Wiboonsak Niphal, Deputy Commanding General of the 2nd Army Area Command, told reporters after a workshop on narcotics control operations in the lower Northeast that recent military action in the region had led to the arrest of several medium and small-scale drug traffickers.

The latest arrest involved the arrest of a Laotian national in possession of 8,000 methamphetamine tablets, as he attempted to send them to customers in the northeastern Ubon Ratchathani Province.

But Maj. Gen. Wiboonsak warned against complacency, and said that he had ordered police and military officers in the region to operate strict controls along Thailand's borders to prevent drug traffickers from entering the country.

From October 2004 to April this year, soldiers in the lower Northeast arrested 57 drug suspects and seized 31,906 methamphetamine tablets.

--TNA 2005-04-26