Speed Pills Amass On Northern Border

[george]

Speed pills amass on northern border

BANGKOK: -- Drug traders are stockpiling a huge number of methamphetamine tablets near Thailand's northern border with Myanmar, waiting for an opportunity to smuggle them across onto the Thai soil, the Secretary-General of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), Pol. Lt. Gen. Krisna Polananta, warned today.

The warning by Pol. Lt. Gen. Krisna comes despite statistics showing that Thailand's overall drug problem has declined.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Krisna attributed the rise in cross-border drug smuggling to government suppression policies, noting that the fierce crackdown on drugs had led traffickers to stockpile increasing numbers of drugs along Thailand's borders.

Warning that the border districts of Mae Sot in western Tak Province and Mae Sai in northern Chiang Rai Province were particularly at threat, he also revealed that traffickers were constantly trying to change their smuggling routes to evade police capture, with new routes opening up through northern Nan and Phayao Provinces.

Next month the ONCB secretary-general will visit Myanmar, where he will stress the necessity of Myanmar's continuing commitment to cross-border drug suppression.

He will also help train Myanmar officials in drug-busting techniques, as well as prevention and rehabilitation operations.

According to figures cited today by Justice Minister Suwat Liptapanlop, the government, in conjunction with local volunteer networks, is monitoring around 5,000 villages thought to be at risk from drugs.

He noted that the government alone could not eliminate drugs from Thailand without close public cooperation.

--TNA 2005-06-04