Golden Triangle 'clearance sale'

Traffickers rush to convert stocks into cash to buy arms

Thai anti-narcotic officials are seeing a flood of heroin and methamphetamine as traffickers slash their inventories in a panicked sell-off to convert their drug stocks into cash to buy weapons. - ST PHOTO: FRANCIS ONG

DOI CHANG MOOB (THAILAND) - A MILITARY crackdown by Myanmar's government on armed ethnic groups along the borders with Thailand, Laos and China has led to a 'clearance sale' of drugs in the area.

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'There was nothing on that scale last year. This year has been quite unusual.'

Mr Leik Boonwaat, the representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, on recent drug busts in Thailand and Myanmar
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Thai anti-narcotic officials are seeing a flood of heroin and methamphetamine as traffickers slash their inventories in a panicked sell-off to convert their drug stocks into cash to buy weapons.

'Some dealers at the border are buying on credit. They don't even need to pay in cash,' said Mr Pornthep Eamprapai, director of the northern branch of the Thai Office of Narcotics Control.

This new development has also led to more heroin seizures by the police in northern Thailand - up by more than twentyfold. From October last year to August this year, the authorities seized 1,270 kg of heroin, up from 57kg a year earlier, according to the Office of Narcotics Control.

On the other side of the border, Myanmar has reported enormous drug seizures in recent months, including one in August of more than 725kg, anti-narcotic officials said. Several million methamphetamine pills were also seized in the Myanmar border town of Tachilek.

'There was nothing on that scale last year,' said Mr Leik Boonwaat, the representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime based in Laos. 'This year has been quite unusual.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS-NEW YORK TIMES

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.
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