Chiang Rai: Soldiers are stepping up patrols along the Thai-Myanmar border in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces after learning that Myanmar authorities have intensified efforts to suppress drug production in the country.
Permpong Chaovalit, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said troops and ONCB officials are worried that drugs producers in Myanmar are still finding ways to smuggle their illicit goods out of the country through border channels.
"We are now working closely with Myanmar and increasing border patrols along the northern border particularly in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai," Mr Permpong said.
He said drug gangs traffic their products to store in Myanmar border towns. They then wait for the right time to smuggle the drugs into Thailand.
Pha Muang Force chief of staff Col Watcharapong Kaewchang told an anti-drugs meeting in Chiang Rai recently that Thailand is the centre of regional narcotics smuggling, due to the geography of the northern border.
Methamphetamine, amphetamines and heroin are transported by land from Myanmar, where the drugs are produced, to Thailand and other neighbouring countries including Laos and Vietnam, he said.
A source said drugs are trafficked from plants in Muang Tang Yang, Muang Phan and Muang Mau in Myanmar's northern Shan State to Chiang Rai in Thailand. The drugs are sold to customers in the country and sent to countries in Europe and the US, according to the source.
Col Watcharapong said producers usually hire smuggling gangs to drop their drugs near Muang Yon Mai in Myanmar.
A mule then collects the drugs and carries them by foot through a forest to a main road where a vehicle is waiting to pick up the narcotics.
Thai authorities have been trying to stop the mules who carry the drugs on foot, to cut the link to the drug smuggling network, he said.
Col Watcharapong said drugs are not carried through a temporary border checkpoint at Ban San Makhet in Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang district.
He said Thailand lets Myanmar citizens enter the country through Ban San Makhet. Most of them come to shop for basic necessities, while some visit doctors at Therdthai Hospital in the district.
A security source said Ban Poo Na Ko and Mong Tong township in Myanmar's Shan State are a base for producing illegal substances.
The source said Lt Col Yi Se's notorious gang pays locals to grow opium and produce methamphetamine and bribes high-ranking Myanmar officials.