Major drug trafficking network busted in Thailand

[jamstock]

groan... more wasted money and resources on a failed and hopeless "war". Catch one, and watch another take his place. It's depressing.

The drug industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, and yet it is completely unregulated by government, and run wholly by criminals. Incredible but true.

So you're saying they should not do anything because it doesn't make any difference? Is that your solution?

Obviously not. As I wrote in a previous post:

"Legalizing, regulating, taxing and educating would get rid of the criminal element and also the fact that drugs being illegal makes them more "glamorous". Kids love to rebel.

Prohibition never worked, and never will. It's human nature."

[Cthulhu]

Lots of words about assets seized and nothing about drugs seized, or drugs searched for, or how these assets tied in with illegal drugs. Is this bad reporting or questionable police work?

Quite. Plenty of crowing about how many hundreds of millions worth of assets seized but nothing about any actual drugs.

The potential for property seizure must be a massive temptation for corruption and the settling of personal scores.

I wonder what public accounting there is of the property seized and where the money goes.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Cthulhu

[Acharn]

"Owner of the house identified as Santi sae Yang, a Burmese national, was arrested."

Burmese can buy houses here??

That's news to me.

Sounds odd, I agree, but perhaps they simply meant he was the person in possession. I think if I was renting a place and the police arrested me, a newspaper story might refer to me as the "owner" of the place.

I was struck by the name. I used to read that the infix "sae" was an indicator of Chinese ethnicity. Not sure if that's specific to the Teochew Chinese, who are the great majority of people of Chinese ancestry in Thailand. That would give him widespread connections though kinship associations and other Chinese social clubs. Also, too, the opium trade, and later heroin, used to be largely controlled in the Golden Triangle by descendants of the defeated Kuomintang armies. I'm waiting to read what government ministers and high ranking police and army officers are implicated.

Off Topic: Anybody know what ever happened to that gang of Border Patrol Police who were busted for extortion, rape, murder, and narcotics trading several years ago in Bangkok? Like most such cases it just disappeared, but perhaps the trial is still ongoing.

[Acharn]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Well there are some of the big fish (Croccidiles) we were waiting for

Well done guys

Really small fish compared to major cartels, and all the dope operations by the likes of the CIA..

So you believe the Hollywood versions of the CIA and the drug trade? Is your vast knowledge of the CIA based on Mel Gibson and the movie "Air America"? That movie did not follow the book in regards to drug trafficking. It is Hollywood hype. General Vang Pao is said to have used drug sales to arm his Hmong Army, and maybe the CIA looked the other way, but in my time at Air America (The real one) I never saw or heard of any involvement in drugs. You make it sound like it is a major source of funding for the CIA. If you think logically about it the CIA has an unlimited budget and it doesn't make sense to involve in drugs.

Your post is a timely reminder to recharge our skepticism batteries, but while I remember the report of CIA using Air America to run drugs into Vietnam, I don't remember any of the details or how credible the reports were. I accepted them at the time as being obvious. Remember, back in 1970 or so, CIA stood for "Caught In the Act." As to their supposedly unlimited budget, employees of the agency are paid based on civil service scales and I find it plausible that they might make use of company assets to line their own pockets a little.

[Oxpilot]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Well there are some of the big fish (Croccidiles) we were waiting for
Well done guys

Really small fish compared to major cartels, and all the dope operations by the likes of the CIA..

So you believe the Hollywood versions of the CIA and the drug trade? Is your vast knowledge of the CIA based on Mel Gibson and the movie "Air America"? That movie did not follow the book in regards to drug trafficking. It is Hollywood hype. General Vang Pao is said to have used drug sales to arm his Hmong Army, and maybe the CIA looked the other way, but in my time at Air America (The real one) I never saw or heard of any involvement in drugs. You make it sound like it is a major source of funding for the CIA. If you think logically about it the CIA has an unlimited budget and it doesn't make sense to involve in drugs.

Your post is a timely reminder to recharge our skepticism batteries, but while I remember the report of CIA using Air America to run drugs into Vietnam, I don't remember any of the details or how credible the reports were. I accepted them at the time as being obvious. Remember, back in 1970 or so, CIA stood for "Caught In the Act." As to their supposedly unlimited budget, employees of the agency are paid based on civil service scales and I find it plausible that they might make use of company assets to line their own pockets a little.

OK, thanks for a more definitive response. Air America pilots were fighting a war and several hundred died doing it, so we get a bit defensive when we hear people talking about us as if our main mission was drug smuggling and gun running. The movie was funny and entertaining, and true we had a lot of colorful (some would say, "Crazy") people. But too many people base their "knowledge" of the company on the movie. It is offensive in its' distortion of what the company was about; mainly supplying the Hmongs with everything from ammunition to rice, pigs, goats, and whatever. The company moto "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Professionally", but it didn't include drugs. Is there corruption in the CIA? I suppose their is temptation and theft in any organization. Look at Aldrich Ames, the CIA mole who caused the death of many Russian assets by selling their names to the Russians. No organization is perfect. But of the CIA Customers (Field Agents) I knew, they were all fiercely loyal and honest Americans. Thanks for your expanded explanation of your meaning "dope operations by the CIA" By the way, I don't think the budget is "unlimited" anymore and even back then it was more like unchecked instead of unlimited.

[epicstuff]

I will venture and say that 9 out of ten rich Burmese here in Thailand or in the borders

area has to come from drug dealing or something connected to the drug industry, and

if I were the government, I'd check each and evry one of them for the origin of their wealth...

i would say 9 out of every rich Thai has done something that could be deemed illegal and quite serious, whether its drugs, tax evasion,. prostitution, fraud, land grabbing or exploitation .etc