Border areas now big storage, transit point
Sunday August 27, 2006
By Anucha Charoenpo
Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to expand anti-drug cooperation following reports that drug traffickers are increasingly using Cambodian border areas as a major drugs storage point and trafficking route through Thailand. Pongsak Putthong, director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board's Division 2, said apart from joint drug suppression activities and information sharing, the two countries would open another two border liaison offices to liaise between Surin province and Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, and between Si Sa Ket province and Cambodia's northern town of Osmach, also in Oddar Meancheay.
Mr Pongsak recently led a team of Thai officials to provide anti-drugs training to their counterparts in Battambang.
He said many kinds of addictive drugs, particularly methamphetamine pills, were being smuggled by traffickers from the western Cambodian provinces of Satung Treng, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, and Battambang into eastern Thailand to avoid heavy suppression by Thai authorities in the North.
More and more Cambodians and Thais living along the border are being hired by the so-called ''ant army'' to avoid detection. According to Mr Pongsak, dealers have developed a unique smuggling system, keeping the amount small in each shipment. Most of the male traffickers arrested this year were found with condoms containing speed pills in their rectum, while women traffickers had them hidden in their vagina, rectum and shoe heels.
Most of the suspects were caught at the Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province.
The speed pills were mainly being brought in for distribution at the Rong Klua second-hand goods market in Aranyaprathet district and among labourers and factory workers in the eastern provinces of Rayong, Chon Buri, Chachoengsao and Samut Prakan.
Lour Ramin, secretary-general of Cambodia's National Authority for Combatting Drugs, said he was hopeful that joint suppression efforts would help curb trafficking along the border. He said that traffickers also use the Mekong river to smuggle in drugs from the Golden Triangle through Cambodia via Laos.
Mr Pongsak recently led a team of Thai officials to provide anti-drugs training to their counterparts in Battambang.
He said many kinds of addictive drugs, particularly methamphetamine pills, were being smuggled by traffickers from the western Cambodian provinces of Satung Treng, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, and Battambang into eastern Thailand to avoid heavy suppression by Thai authorities in the North.
More and more Cambodians and Thais living along the border are being hired by the so-called ''ant army'' to avoid detection. According to Mr Pongsak, dealers have developed a unique smuggling system, keeping the amount small in each shipment. Most of the male traffickers arrested this year were found with condoms containing speed pills in their rectum, while women traffickers had them hidden in their vagina, rectum and shoe heels.
Most of the suspects were caught at the Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province.
The speed pills were mainly being brought in for distribution at the Rong Klua second-hand goods market in Aranyaprathet district and among labourers and factory workers in the eastern provinces of Rayong, Chon Buri, Chachoengsao and Samut Prakan.
Lour Ramin, secretary-general of Cambodia's National Authority for Combatting Drugs, said he was hopeful that joint suppression efforts would help curb trafficking along the border. He said that traffickers also use the Mekong river to smuggle in drugs from the Golden Triangle through Cambodia via Laos.
2 comments:
What could do Mr Lour Ramin and Mr ponsak if the Cambodian Prime Minister HUN SEN is the famous Head of the MAFIA ?
The Thai had been profiting from the misfortunate Cambodia for centuries.... What makes one thinks that the Thai will stop now?
Poor Khmer! To the north are the Thais and to the south are the Viets!
08/27/06
AKnijaKhmer
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