Traffickers 'graduating' from prisons
Learn drug trade inside and are then released
SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG NUCHAREE RAEKRUN
More than 12,000 new drug traffickers emerged in the country over the past year, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). Many of them had served jail sentences for drug offences and learned the illicit business from fellow inmates who were traffickers.
ONCB secretary-general Kitti Limchaikit said on Thursday that many of the known 12,559 new dealers were released last year and joined trafficking rings.
The office is monitoring the movements of former prisoners jailed for drug offences.
Mr Kitti also said transnational drug traffickers are turning to Thailand as a transit point because Chinese authorities are cracking down on illegal drugs.
Drug dealers also thought internal problems in Thailand might facilitate their operations, he said.
An ONCB survey found 6,540 new drug addicts in the country over the past year, while a United Nations study concluded that global demand for drugs was not on the decline.
Mr Kitti said solutions to the problem should focus on the rehabilitation of drug addicts and anti-drug campaigns among teenagers, who are vulnerable to drug addiction.
There are about 4.2 million people in this age group in the school system and 1.4 million more outside.
Meanwhile, about 100 policemen in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Thursday raided a construction materials company and a wood-processing plant belonging to a suspected drug trafficker, and seized about 40 million baht worth of assets for examination.
They raided Chokechai CPAC and Construction Material Co, on Thung Song-Surat road in Tham Phannara district, and nearby NY Parawood Co, owned by Yongyuth Wutiworadit, 55.
Regional narcotics suppression chief Pol Lt-Col Watcharin Parnsuwan said the arrest of a trafficker in the northeastern province of Surin and the seizure of 1,500kg of marijuana in Nakhon Ratchasima and Pathum Thani last weekend led police to Mr Yongyuth.
Suspected of being a transnational drug trafficker, he remained at large. An arrest warrant had been issued by the Nakhon Ratchasima provincial court.
The seized assets include two six-wheeled trucks, two motorcycles, a pistol, a rifle, a 200-rai palm plantation, processed wood, logs and a tractor.
Bangkok Post Aug. 11, 2007