Myanmar strategy to curb production of drug in
region.
JUSTICE
Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya yesterday discussed the "Golden
Triangle Siege" strategy with Myanmar authorities, which includes trying
to prevent more than 3,000 tonnes of narcotic ingredients pouring into
drug-manufacturing bases in the area each year and measures to stop the
smuggling of illicit drugs to other countries.
Paiboon
also led Thai delegates in Nay Pyi Taw to meet with Myanmar's Minister of Home
Affairs Lt General Kyaw Swe, Minister of Border Affairs Lt Gen Ye Aung and
Health Minister Dr Myint Htwe to discuss progress of the third phase of the
"Safe Mekong" for 2016-2018.
Paiboon
said the key point of talks was the "Golden Triangle Siege" plan,
which will see Thailand providing support for drug suppression units in Myanmar
for a three-year period.
It will
include drug investigations, interception operations and human resource
development, plus work to develop villages along the border of |the two
countries to try to improve |people's life quality and options.
"We
also informed the Myanmar Health Minister that Thailand was ready to provide
academic support for drug rehabilitation treatment, personnel training, plus
some budget for the border villages' development project as per guideline of
the UN General Assembly Special Sessions (UNGASS) on drugs. The Myanmar
authorities said they were ready to cooperate," Paiboon told reporters
after the meeting.
Sirinya
Sithichai, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board
(ONCB), said Thailand had been cooperating with Myanmar on the "Safe Mekong"
project since 2013. He said the project was now entering its third phase and
involved six countries - China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
He said
the Golden Triangle was one of the world's major areas for making narcotics. It
was estimated that each year drug manufacturers there imported over 3,000
tonnes of narcotic |substances to produce drugs.
In
related news, the ONCB held a press conference in Bangkok yesterday to announce
results of three separate busts on Wednesday that saw police nab seven suspects
and seize 574,800 'yaba' pills and 16 kilograms of crystal meth or
"ice" worth Bt86 million.
In the
first case, former drug convict and motorcycle taxi-man Chokchai Rungsaengpho,
35, was arrested in Samut Prakan's Phra Samut Chedi district on Wednesday with
15.95 kg of 'ice' and 288,800 pills, plus tools to make pills. He initially
confessed to dealing and police hope to arrest his accomplices soon.
In the
second case, wanted man Nirut Jermsri, 29, plus two women aged 29 and 61,
alleged to be accomplices, were arrested with 0.49 gram of "ice", a
pistol and six bullets at a house in Bang Sue in Bangkok. In the third case,
three suspects - Khaneung Yutthahan, 36, Prasit Ketniam, 23, and Supakorn
Khotprathum, 19, were arrested with 286,000 pills at a gas station in Sam Khok
in Pathum Thani. The three reportedly confessed to transporting drugs from a
Nakhon Phanom border area to the South for a second time.
Piyanuch
Tamnukasetchai, Khanathit Srihirandej
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