Chiang Rai News

SE Asia’s War on Drugs is “Fueling Opioum Production”

Opium Cultivation on the Rise in Northern Provinces Except Chiang Rai. A policeman holds poppy plants after a field was destroyed

CHIANG RAI – Cultivation of opium in Southeast Asia’s notorious Golden Triangle region has doubled in the past decade, according to an in-depth study that rebuffs claims by governments that an aggressive anti-narcotics policy is reaping benefits and improving livelihoods.

The findings come a year before the 2015 deadline set by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc to make the region drugs free. Myanmar, the world’s second highest opium producer after Afghanistan, remains the driving force. According to research by the Transnational Institute (TNI), nearly 60,000 hectares of land were used for opium cultivation in 2013, producing 870 tonnes of the substance, compared to just over 20,000 hectares in 2006.

Drug Suppression authorities and soldiers of the 3rd army have eradicated more than 1,600 rai of opium poppy farmlands in the North of Thailand over the past year

Martin Jelsma, co-author of TNI’s report, ‘Bouncing Back – Relapse in the Golden Triangle’, offered a stark warning to those still pushing for heavy handed treatment of users and poorly planned crop substitution programs.

“Instead of holding on to the illusion of a drug free ASEAN, policies and resources should be redirected towards managing the drugs market in the least harmful way, because whether we like it or not, that market is here to stay,” he said in a statement.

The strict 2015 deadline for a drugs-free Southeast Asia, driven in part by pressure from western nations, may have worsened the problem. Law enforcement officials, particularly in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, have taken a heavy-handed approach to both low-rung mules and users, with teenage addicts known to have been locked up in poorly maintained rehabilitation centers that receive meager funding, and where abuse is rife.

In February this year, the UN came under fire from a coalition of rights groups, who said that UN-funded anti-drugs campaigns in Vietnam had included the death penalty for drug-related offenses. Vietnam has around 700 people on death row, many on drugs charges. TNI said that the UN drugs agency’s “monopoly of truth” meant that its statistics on drug production across the region were often taken as gospel, despite them being largely based on guesstimates – and therefore often conservative – rather than reliable scientific data.

The majority of the region’s drugs, both opium and methamphetamine, flow into Laos, China and Thailand from northeastern Myanmar’s Shan State. Japan and Australia are also consumers of Shan heroin. The mountainous state has long hosted rival drug militias and armies who cultivate poppies in fields nestled alongside legal crop plantations. Factories hidden deep with forests also churn out millions of amphetamine tablets each year, which find a keen market in Thailand.

For many of Shan State’s poor farmers, production of opium is the only reliable source of income. Crop substitution programs, designed by both the Myanmar government and the Chinese, which is becoming increasingly alarmed at the movement of drugs across its borders, have been a resounding failure, and in many cases driven farmers deeper into poverty.

“The current Chinese opium substitution programs in Burma [Myanmar] and Laos have further marginalised vulnerable communities by pushing them off their lands to make way for large-scale agricultural concessions controlled by Chinese entrepreneurs and local authorities,” the report says.

Anthony Davis, an expert on the Southeast Asian drugs market and an analyst with Janes Defence Weekly, says official complicity by the Myanmar military has been a key facilitator in the trade. “My sense is that there’s certainly involvement of army personnel, possibly up to battalion commanders in places where local militias are actively involved in the market,” he says.

The report goes one step further, saying that too heavy a focus on drug kingpins and militias had ignored the fact that the market is greased by “illegal transactions that come dangerously close to the higher echelons of power in the region”.

The Myanmar government, which has historically been known to have a hand in the industry, has negotiated ceasefires with a number of armed ethnic groups known to be key players in the drugs trade. Davis says however that rather than bringing law and order to the border regions, the ceasefires have permitted space in which greater drug production can be carried out.

“These temporary ceasefires have been ordered at the end of a rifle barrel, resulting in a situation whereby certain forces are ramping up production of drugs in order to make money and prepare for conflict.”

The TNI warned that the industry has become increasingly regionalized, “with opium cultivation in Northeast India linked to Burmese markets, India and China producing precursors for heroin and ATS [amphetamine-type stimulants] for Burma and Thailand, and the Golden Triangle producing heroin for the Chinese market”.

The spread has been a direct result of government focusing on punishing users and aggressively eradicating drugs, rather than making earnest attempts at alleviating poverty and other root causes of production.

Chiang Rai News

Chiang Rai Man Kills Woman’s Infant Daughter When She Refuses His Sexual Advances

Police in Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai Province have arrested a 50 year old man after the threatened to rape a 20 year-old woman and the proceeded to murder her 2 and half month old baby.

Police with doctors from Wiang Kaen Hospital and the Chao Luang Wiang Kaen Welfare Association were summoned to the scene of the incident to a 2-story cement house, Village No. 2, Tha Kham Subdistrict, Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai

On arrival they found Ms. Chanikarn, age 20, in a state of distress crying uncontrollably beside her 2 and a half month baby girl (Linlada) that was dead on the floor.

After calming Ms. Chanikarn, the child’s mother, said that at approximately 2:30 p.m she was out to collect diapers that had been dried in front of the house, while her 2 and a half month old daughter was sleep on the ground floor of the house.

She said she was suddenly approached by a Mr. Lee, about 40 years old, who lived on the opposite side of the road. He came towards her and grabbed her arm and threatened her saying if she didn’t sleeping with him he will go and kill his daughter.

Miss Chanikan refused and ran away, then Mr. Lee then walked into the house and grabbed Ms. Linlada’s leg, smashing the child’s head against the cement floor of the house. The infant died immediately.

Mr. Lee then just walked away and returned to his own home, leaving Miss Chanikan and her dead baby.

When police went to Mr. Lee’s home he immediately confessed killing the infant and was taken to Wiang Kaen Police Station for further questioning. Under caution he told police that he was sexually attracted to Miss Chanikan‘s and when her husband leave for work he took the opportunity to approach her.

He said when he saw her husband leave he crossed that road and found Miss Chanikan in the yard alone, he then threatened her to sleep with him, saying he would kill her child if she didn’t have sex with him. However when she refused he flew into a fit of rage walked into her home and murdered he baby. He said he was out of control with rage.

After killing the infant he walk across the street to his home and waited for the police to arrive. The police have charged him with premeditated murder and attempted rape. He is being held without bail at the local remand center.

Meanwhile, Miss Chanikan and her family were preparing a religious burial ceremony for the child.

Other Chiang Rai News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Chiang Rai News

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

CHIANG RAI: Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, Assigned Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai Pitanilabut, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Police/Deputy Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, has launched the operation ‘Bombing the Thieves’ Bridge’ in collaboration with the CAT Office, G., mobile phone network operators AIS DTAC TRUE NT, and local security agencies to cut the mobile phone signal and WiFi internet that criminals illegally use to deceive Thai citizens.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division

Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai stated that they will begin pressing the first action of the ‘Explosion of Thieves’ Bridge’ in Chiang Rai Province toward the thieves’ base of operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.

The territory surrounding King Roman in Laos. King Roman is now a full-service entertainment destination with an airport that welcomes travelers from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, he explained.

According to Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai, this operation will have no influence on honest people along the Thai border, and it will only target cyber criminals.

They will also increase the arrest and prosecution of unlawful service towers, such as SIM booths, which allow gangs register SIM cards to swindle the people. Dealing with criminal organizations of foreigners and Thais who band together to deceive and damage Thais.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) suspended more than three million SIM cards on July 16 because the holders had not verified their identities with their mobile phone operators by the deadline, in accordance with the NBTC’s measures to combat alleged fraudsters’ mule accounts.

The names of the holders of 80 million mobile phone numbers used for mobile banking transactions did not match the names associated with the mobile banking accounts.

The NBTC would require mobile phone companies to authenticate SIM card holders and the names of their mobile banking accounts. The verification procedure is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.

In addition, the NBTC and Royal Thai Police have collaborated to combat illegal telecom towers throughout the country’s borders, disconnecting signals at 465 places, altering antenna direction at 470 towers, and dismantling antennas at 179 locations.

They are certain that the move will disrupt contact center gangs and other types of technology-based crime.

Other Chiang Rai News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Chiang Rai News

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

Police in Mae Chan, Chiang Rai, shot and killed a 28-year-old man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete. The officer was slashed in the right leg with the machete.

According to police, the culprit, known only as Mr. Toon, had been harassing local villagers in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai, threatening them with a knife and using violet insults.

The village headman arrived on the scene to try to calm Mr. Toon, but he was shouting hysterically and taking swipes at him with the machete, so he contacted the police.

When the responding officer arrived at the site about 9 p.m., he attempted to calm the man, but he instead assaulted the officer, slashing his right leg with the machete. In self-defense, the cop had to fire his gun at Mr. Toon, striking him in the chest.

Mr. Toon and the policeman were taken to Mae Chan Hospital, where Mr. Toon died of a gunshot wound. Pol Sgt. Sutthikiat Phanomphraisakul was released from the hospital after receiving numerous stitches for his injuries.

Local police received a tip around 9.30 p.m. yesterday that a guy was causing mayhem in the village. When authorities arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Toon strolling along a public road, holding a large knife and threatening people. Mae Chan district officials attempted to contain the incident.

During a search of Mr. Toon’s home, authorities discovered methamphetamine consumption equipment. Locals told authorities that the man was addicted to Yaba (Methamphetamine) and an alcoholic.

The authorities are conducting an inquiry to determine Toon’s motivations and whether any underlying issues contributed to his violent outburst.