Thai, Myanmar police target precursor smugglers in bid to halt meth tide
The Royal Thai Police is upping efforts with Myanmar to halt the tide of chemicals used to make methamphetamine and amphetamine that flows between the two countries.
Thai national police deputy chief Chinnapat Sarasin said the two sides met in Yangon this week for talks amid Thailand’s worsening drug situation.
Chinnapat said one tonne of sodium cyanide can be used to make 20 million tablets of amphetamine.
"Over the past four years, many metric tonnes of sodium cyanide have been transported from Thailand to Myanmar," he added.
Fuelled by cheap and abundant supplies of precursor chemicals, the street price of methamphetamine has plummeted to around 15 baht per pill, according to Thailand’s Office of Narcotics Control Board. The chemicals are smuggled to Myanmar’s Golden Triangle, where labs controlled by the rebel United Wa State Army churn out methamphetamine that floods Southeast Asia.
According to the United Nations, 594 million meth tablets, 18,000kgs of crystal meth and 1,500 tonnes of precursor chemicals were seized in Mekong countries from last October to August this year. The seizures failed to dent the low street price, indicating they were just a tiny fraction of the supply.
Chinnapat, who doubles as director of the Police Narcotics Control Management Centre, said Thailand and Myanmar police have tightened monitoring on the use of all precursor chemicals.
Myanmar authorities are screening imports of the chemicals in a bid to weed out smuggling, he added.
"Thailand and Myanmar will exchange information to ensure that precursor chemicals are not misused," he said.
Chinnapat added that Myanmar police expressed willingness to arrest drug suspects that flee over the border from Thailand.
He said the suspects usually hide among ethnic groups living along the border.
"Suspects who commit crimes in both countries will be punished under Myanmar laws before they are sent back to Thailand," he said.
The cooperation with Myanmar authorities comes after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered a drugs crackdown following a mass shooting by a reported drug addict and former policeman earlier this month. Panya Khamrab killed 38 people, mainly young children, on October 6 just hours after appearing in court on a drugs charge.
