Wednesday, June 28 2:07 PM SGT
Myanmar drug traffickers plan to churn out cheap ecstasy
BANGKOK, June 28 (AFP) -
Drug warlords accused of churning out heroin and amphetamines from their factories inside Myanmar are poised to begin mass production of cheap ecstasy, narcotics control sources told AFP.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), stung by Thai military strikes against its opium poppy plantations and offensives to stamp out the new trade in amphetamines, are now being forced to diversify again.
"They have had to act because Thai officials have taken serious action on the border to fight against drugs," the source said.
Within weeks they are expected to begin producing ecstasy, and move it out of Myanmar along effective new smuggling routes currently used to flood Thailand with amphetamines, he said.
The Wa plan to slash the price of an ecstasy pill by more than half to about 200-300 baht (5-8 dollars) to reach a much wider market. But it is feared cost-cutting will make it much more poisonous than pure ecstasy.
"Hundred percent pure ecstasy is not so harmful but these pills will not be pure and could be very dangerous," said the expert, who is familiar with Thailand's anti-drugs program on the northern border.
The poor quality, however, is expected to largely prevent the Wa from trafficking their ecstasy into third countries, he said.
Instead, they will send millions of pills over the southern border with Thailand and target the growing numbers of teenagers here who are experimenting with illegal drugs.
At the current price of 800 baht (20 dollars), ecstasy brought in from Thailand's southern neighbour Malaysia and sold in Bangkok's ritzy nightclubs is out of the reach of most Thais.
Nevertheless, ecstasy is fast catching on in Thailand -- authorities seized 24,205 tablets last year, up from 4,517 tablets in 1998.
But while ecstasy may be the business of the future, and the battle against heroin is yesterday's war, authorities say amphetamines are without doubt the most serious drugs problem now facing Thailand.
The Wa Army does a roaring trade in the stimulant -- Thailand estimates that 600 million tablets of "ya baa" or "crazy drug", as it is known here, were trafficked over the border last year.
More than forty amphetamines factories are believed to be operating along the stretch of Myanmar's border that runs along Thailand's three north-eastern provinces.
But since Thai authorities began clamping down on amphetamines, now regarded as the top national security threat, traffickers have had to blaze a new trail to get their product across the border.
To bypass the Thai military's heavy presence in the northern provinces, the gateway to the overland route to Bangkok, the UWSA is now sending shipments by plane or boat over the Andaman Sea, the source said.
They arrive in Ranong, a town on the southern-most border between the two neighbours, and are then trucked up north to the Thai capital.
Alternatively, the traffickers travel east and slip into Laos before moving south and crossing into Thailand, he added.
The new air and sea routes are also proving more effective by minimising losses caused by the bone-shaking overland journey.
The source told AFP that up to half of every shipment was arriving smashed and unusable, forcing the traffickers to sometimes smuggle in component chemicals and cook them up inside Thailand.
"Amphetamines are extremely easy to make. You can mix the chemicals in a space as small as a van, which is very hard for us to detect," another anti-narcotics expert said.
The United States has identified Myanmar, and fellow rogue state Afghanistan, as the world's "headquarters for the heroin business".
And it has also expressed concern over the growing threat of amphetamines manufactured by the Wa, the most feared of Myanmar's rebel insurgencies.
The UWSA, cobbled together from the remnants of the Communist Party of Burma, has become the most powerful of several ethnic rebel groups, allegedly thanks to profits from the drugs trade.
Many Western nations have accused the country's military rulers of condoning
drug trafficking by armed ethnic groups such as the Wa Army in return for ceasefires.
However, the junta claims it is doing its best, and accuses the international community of offering only criticism, and no help or financial assistance, in fighting the drugs trade.
