Time: Thu Apr 03 19:03:50 1997
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Date: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 18:58:03 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Guerillas take over Golden Triangle drug trade (fwd)
<snip>
Dear Clients,
I have a long transcript of a Bo Gritz lecture
on this subject, delivered at St. Mary's Cathedral
in the summer of 1991. I can attach it to email
messages, upon request.
/s/ Paul Mitchell
>
>Guerillas take over Golden Triangle drug trade
>
> MAE HONGSON, Thailand, April 3 (Reuter) - Heroin factories in the Golden
>Triangle are flourishing again as they once did under now-retired drug
>warlord Khun Sa -- but this time at the direction of his longtime rivals,
>ethnic Wa guerrillas.
>
> Khun Sa's former turf has been taken over by the United Wa State Army
>(UWSA), a splinter group of the Burmese Communist Party in northern Burma's
>Shan state which maintains a ceasefire with the military government in
>Rangoon, sources with Thai and U.S. anti-narcotics authorities told Reuters.
>
> The factories in the state's opium poppy-growing area formerly belonged
>to Khun Sa, the half-Shan, half-Chinese leader of the now defunct Mong Tai
>Army (MTA), which controlled the opium trade while fighting the Burmese
>government for Shan state independence.
>
> ``The information we have is, the United Wa State Army has resumed much
>of the drugs production and activities from the Shan United Army (MTA),''
>said a drug enforcement officer with the U.S. embassy in Bangkok.
>
> Opium is refined into heroin. The Golden Triangle, which straddles the
>borders of Laos, Thailand and Burma, is said by U.S. drug enforcement
>officials to supply about 70 percent of the world's heroin.
>
> Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese authorities in January 1996 and is
>believed by anti-drug officials to be living in luxury in Rangoon. Burma has
>said Khun Sa, who is wanted by U.S. authorities, will not be extradited.
>
> Golden Triangle heroin production went into hiatus during the power
>vacuum following Khun Sa's surrender.
>
> But the United Wa State Army had since taken over several former MTA
>jungle bases in defiance of demands by Burma's ruling State Law and Order
>Restoration Council (SLORC) that it pull out of the area, the Thai sources
>said.
>
> ``The heroin factories that used to belong to Khun Sa such as Doi Lang
>and Hauy Maekham are now under the control of the Wa,'' a Thai narcotics
>officer told Reuters.
>
> The Wa took over the heroin factories after Wei Siao Gang, who is wanted
>by the United States for drug trafficking, was appointed commander of UWSA
>forces near the Thai border late last year, replacing Tei Kung Ming, who was
>murdered in China, a Thai police source said.
>
> Wei Siao Gang and his brother Wei Siao Long are longtime, bitter rivals
>of Khun Sa in the drug trade.
>
> ``The Wei brothers are the new drug kings in the Golden Triangle,'' the
>narcotics officer said.
>
> Doi Lang is a former Khun Sa stronghold while Hauy Maekhan was believed
>to have housed one of his biggest heroin factories.
>
> A journalist who visited the areas last week confirmed heavy deployments
>of Wa guerrillas in the two places.
>
> ``Every month, the Wa produce at least 140 kg (309 lb) of heroin from
>these two factories,'' said another Thai anti-narcotics source based in
>northern Thailand.
>
> He estimated that the Wa produced at least two tonnes of heroin annually.
>
>
> Khun Sa's former headquarters at Ho Mong in Shan state is now a ghost
>town. At the height of his power, Ho Mong housed more than 12,000 people who
>enjoyed such amenities as a school, hospital, electricity and karaoke bars.
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU
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