Pubdate: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand) Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2002 Contact: http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39 Author: Anucha Charoenpo, Subin Kheunkaew DRUGS SENT TO TAIWAN FROM NORTH MILITARY Chinese Haws Send Pills To Thai Workers Chinese Haws in northern border villages use connections with their relatives in Taiwan to export illicit drugs for sale to Thai workers there, a military source says. The drug business had been detected at villages in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, which once housed refugee camps for remnants of the Kuomintang -- former Chinese nationalists who fled Taiwan 50 years ago. Most Kuomintang members escaped the fighting to Taiwan, but some also settled here. The settlers in Thailand have maintained contacts with relatives in Taiwan and send their children to study there. The source said many students later worked as Mandarin-speaking interpreters in Taiwanese factories and construction companies. That gave them a chance to contact Thai workers. ``Drug pushers among Chinese Haws exploit close ties between the children of nationalists and Thai workers to bring illicit drugs, mainly methamphetamines and heroin, into Taiwan, where they are sold to Thai workers addicted to drugs,'' he said. Most drugs were taken in by parents and relatives visiting the students in Taiwan or by the students themselves, he said. Some drugs were sent by mail or with consumer goods to restaurants and karaoke bars. A source at the Narcotics Control Board admitted Chinese Haws were suspected of being involved in the international drug trade and said the agency was tracking drug movements from Thailand to Taiwan. The ONCB arrested a group of Chinese Haws boarding a flight to Taiwan a few years ago with several kilogrammes of heroin. Over the years many Chinese Haws have been arrested on charges of trafficking in methamphetamines in Bangkok. Taiwanese authorities have asked the ONCB for details on methamphetamine trafficking networks after an influx of speed pills. Maj-Gen Nakorn Sripetphan, commander of the Pha Muang Task Force, said the army was aware that Chinese Haws were involved in trafficking from Thailand to Taiwan. One target area was the villages at Ban Yang in Chiang Mai's Mae Ngon sub-district, a former production base of drug warlord Wei Hsueh-kang. The village, about 30 km from the Thai-Burmese border and near Doi Angkhang, is among 66 villages which the task force tried to turn into drug-free areas last year. Villagers at Ban Yang did not cooperate with the soldiers, said Capt Chusak Samakthanyakij, who supervised the project for the task force. ``Only a few villagers showed up when we held meetings about the project. Most were elderly people,'' he said. Ban Yang is a prime target because parts of it look too wealthy. Villagers earn their living growing tea and lychee. But one house in the village boasts a swimming pool inside a five-rai modern concrete compound. A military source said the house belonged to a close aide of Mr Wei, who once stayed in Mong Yawn, a drug production base of the United Wa State Army in Burma. Other concrete houses here hide behind unusually high walls. Sport and luxury cars have been seen in the village. Kittipong Yawuth, the village chief, said young villagers working as interpreters in Taiwan sent money home to their parents, which accounted for the development in the area. He neither admitted or denied that drugs were smuggled from the village to Taiwan, but conceded drug gangs had used his community to store drugs. Suchart Sae-tao, 46, who once worked as a Mandarin-speaking interpreter in Taiwan, admitted many Chinese Haws from Thailand sold methamphetamine pills to Thai workers there. A pill cost at least 800 baht. Some 3,000-4,000 Thais leave for Taiwan every month to work at construction sites and factories. Taiwan now employs about 130,000 Thai workers. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens