Thai Cabinet okays drug crackdown budget for neighbouring nations

The budget was approved as proposed by the Justice Ministry during the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The ministry reasoned that the budget would be spent to increase cooperation with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in operations to destroy drug-making sites and eliminating cross-border drug-trafficking networks.

The budget would come from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) for fiscal year 2022 and would be spent between now and December.

According to the Justice Ministry, the budget would be spent for four activities:

▪︎suppression of drug and precursor chemicals in the Mekong basin nations;

▪︎interception of drug and precursor chemicals in the Mekong nations;

▪︎increasing the potential of drug suppression in the Mekong nations;

▪︎management operations of drug suppression coordination centres of Mekong nations.

The budget would be distributed to the four nations as follows:

• 5.1 million baht for Myanmar

The budget for Myanmar would be for procurement of a chemical analysing machine, a 4x4 double cap pickup, and a 3,500-cc sedan car.

• 6.15 million baht for Laos

The budget would include cost of K9 dogs handling in three provinces and in Vientiane. The budget would also be spent for procurement of a 4x4 double cap pickup, four motorcycles, a drone, 30 GPS devices, and three security cameras.

• 2.15 million baht for Cambodia

The budget would include petrol cost of petrol boats and daily allowances for drug suppression units in eight provinces.

The money would also be spent for buying a chemical analysing machine for the National Authority for Combating Drugs, and 320 kits of urine drug test kits, as well as maintenance cost for four chemical analysing machines.

• 2.6 million baht for Vietnam

The money would include allowance for patrol officials along the borders and money rewards for 120 informants as well as allowance for checkpoint officials in Hoa Binh province.

The money would also be spent to buy 10 motorcycles.

The ministry said the ONCB would disburse the money to the four countries as soon as possible.