Drugs mills raided on border

Golden Triangle smugglers ‘disrupted’

Authorities are ramping up security along the border with Myanmar following a large-scale narcotics crackdown in Shan State, Niyom Termsrisuk, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, told media yesterday.

Dubbed “Golden Triangle 1511”, the crackdown is a joint initiative between six countries — China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand — and aims to decimate drug production in the “Golden Triangle” on the mountainous border between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

Yesterday, authorities acting on a tipoff in Myanmar’s Shan State seized a stockpile of drug precursors and narcotics, as well as eight drugs-manufacturing machines with the capacity to pump out 3.4 million methamphetamine pills a day.

“The Golden Triangle 1511 operation is high-impact and is certain to severely undermine drug syndicates in the

Golden Triangle,” Mr Niyom told media at a press conference yesterday.

He said the ongoing operation, which began in December, had already disrupted drug smuggling in the region after a crackdown on the northern and western borders forced smugglers to set up new routes along the Thai-Lao border in the east.

So far, 55 million methamphetamine pills, 62 tonnes of drug precursors, 6.2 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine and 470 kilogrammes of heroin as well as 517kg of ketamine have been seized by authorities.

The operation is scheduled to last until March.

In another development, a couple was arrested yesterday by soldiers in Krabi as they were about to deliver what they called new ya ba [methamphetamine] to clients near a roadside food shop in Nua Khlong district.

The officers found 700 blue-coloured speed pills hidden in the couple’s car.

The drugs are a new type of low-cost methamphetamine, according to the suspects’ confession.

The officers said the pair had confessed to planning to sell the drugs to teenagers for between 40 and 50 baht per pill.