Hub set up to battle Mekong drugs menace
Kingdom allies with Laos, Myanmar, China
Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China set up a new, temporary centre yesterday to foster collaboration in their fight against illicit drug trafficking on the Mekong River.
The Safe Mekong Coordination Centre (SMCC) was launched in Chiang Mai as the four countries intensify their crackdown on narcotics smugglers.
Laos, Myanmar and China have each sent two officials to work alongside counterparts from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), Royal Thai Navy, Royal Thai Army and Interior Ministry at the new centre on a temporary basis, ONCB secretary-general Permpong Chaovalit said.
Their joint fight against drugs includes coordinating on river and land patrols, sharing information, identifying targets and raids, and blocking the flow of precursors used to make drugs.
It is the second joint operation after China hosted the first mission in its province of Yunnan last year. The four countries agreed to take turns hosting the centre.
Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Koomchaya said during the launch of the centre that Thailand alone could not solve widespread drug trafficking on the river as so many drugs were smuggled into the kingdom from neighbouring countries.
Help from other countries is crucial to end the problem, he added.
China, led by the China National Narcotics Control Commission (CNNCC), has taken the lead in the campaign after 13 Chinese sailors were murdered in 2011 on two cargo ships carrying 920,000 methamphetamine pills. Their bodies were dumped into the river 25 kilometres north of Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai, near the border with Myanmar and Laos.
Lao authorities arrested Myanmar drug kingpin Nor Kam and his gang for the crime in 2012 and extradited him to China on murder charges. He was sentenced to death in 2013 by China’s highest court.
Beijing demanded joint patrols on the Mekong since the sailors’ murders and stepped up its role to combat drug trafficking along the river, which is used to transport goods between Kunming and the three countries downstream.
Traffickers have used the opportunities presented by growing trade to carry out their lucrative, illegal business by transporting narcotics on cargo ships.
CNNCC deputy secretary-general An Guojun promised serious efforts to crack down on drugs as three million Chinese citizens were addicted to methamphetamine pills, crystal methamphetamine or heroin.
He admitted factories in China produced precursors for the drugs and had been targeted by the authorities.
Myint Thein, deputy secretary-general of the Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, called for other countries to stop producing the widespread substances used to make illicit drugs.
The Myanmar official said ethnic minority groups were to blame for the drug problem in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, a man from Phayao province was arrested in Chiang Rai yesterday with one million methamphetamine pills in his pickup truck.
Nirand Sakulrakkiat, 43, was nabbed at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital in Muang district.
He allegedly admitted he was hired by a major drug network in the province for 100,000 baht to drive the pickup with the pills and 18 kilos of heroin to be delivered to another courier.