(Mizzima) - Black cats are thought by many to be lucky, but the porcelain replicas that ended up in a customs and excise lockup at New York’s JFK Airport signaled bad news for the exporter in far off Thailand.
The china figurines were packed with nearly 100kg of raw opium, and their chance discovery by an customs official sounded alarm bells not only in Thailand but in neighboring Burma, where the opium originated.
News of the discovery broke as Thai drugs enforcement agents announced the seizure of nearly 200kg of Burmese heroin in Thailand’s central Phrae Province.
The heroin haul alone was more than double the average annual total seized by Thai officials in recent years, confirming fears that Thailand remains a major conduit for Burmese opium and heroin destined for the US and other Western countries. The discovery of the smuggled opium at New York’s JFK Airport and the sophistication of the delivery operation heightened Thai fears.
Officials of Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) are trying to trace the route taken by the heroin and opium smugglers from refineries in Shan State, near Northern Thailand’s border with Burma. Their task is made more difficult by the suspected involvement of some influential Thai middlemen in the lucrative drugs trade.
Reporting on the heroin seizure in Thai’s Phrae Province, the English language daily Bangkok Post said Thai ‘men in uniform’ and local politicians were assisting traffickers to smuggle drugs through Thailand to Bangkok and onwards to foreign markets.
‘There’s a great deal of money to be made, certainly sufficient to buy the cooperation of ill-paid civil servants and local officials’, said a source close to the ONCB.
Heroin traded at the Thai-Burmese border fetches 750,000 baht (US$ 25,000) a kilo. By the time it reaches Bangkok, the price rises to as much as 5 million baht ($166,666) a kilo.
Raw opium is cheaper but a bulkier product to move. The 100 kilos seized at JFK Airport had a US street value of about $90,000 a kilo.
ONCB officials are sure the opium and heroin seized in Thailand and New York originated in border regions of Burma’s Shan State, in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
The US Drug Enforcement Administration describes the UWSA as the ‘largest drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia’ with a transportation and distribution network extending throughout Thailand and neighboring countries.
The alleged ringleaders of the network are three ethnic Chinese brothers, Wei Hsueh-kang, Wei Hsueh-lung and Wei Hsueh-ying, who are fugitives from Thai and US law. Wei Hsueh-Kang has a death sentence hanging over him in Thailand.
The three brothers and other leaders of the network have amassed huge fortunes from the opium and heroin trade, building a business empire as well as financing a standing army of 30,000 troops.
Thousands are employed in growing the opium and processing it into heroin in ‘factories’ hidden in the jungle along the remote, mountainous region where Shan State borders Northern Thailand.
Officially, the illegal trade is downplayed by Burma’s rulers in the far-off capital of Naypyidaw, although occasional attempts are made to create an impression in the outside world that effective measures are being made to combat it. Piles of confiscated drugs are regularly burnt and token raids are made on the factories and laboratories where they are produced.
The central problem for any Burmese government is that while it can’t afford politically to be seen to support illegal activities by the UWSA it still needs to cultivate a healthy mutual relationship.
Although the Wa region has no formal place within Burma’s political makeup of states and divisions it was granted the status of a semi-autonomous region: Special Region No. 2. The UWSA political organization, the United Wa State Party, signed a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese government in 1989, and an uneasy peace reigned.
The peaceful façade cracked, however, when Senior General Than Shwe’s regime announced its plan to absorb the ethnic armies into the Border Guard Force under the command of regime officers.
The UWSA refused and then underscored its defiance by refusing to allow the November 2010 election to be held in its territory.
War clouds gathered on the horizon as both sides refused to budge—and the recent drugs hauls in Thailand and New York are being seen as evidence that the UWSA is raising money not only to maintain the lifestyles of the drug lords but also to boost its armory in preparation for a possible showdown with the Burmese Army.
