Americans warned of Thai drug-gang retaliation<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Reuter): The United States has warned its citizens to
\nbe careful traveling in northern Thailand because revenge attacks
\nby drug gangs were possible after the arrest of 10 suspected
\nheroin traffickers, a U.S. Embassy official said yesterday.<\/p>\n
"As a result of the recent arrest of several leading drug
\ntraffickers, the State Department is concerned about possible
\nreprisals," the official said.<\/p>\n
The warning, which covers the northern Thai provinces of Mae
\nHong Son, Chiang Rai and northern parts of Chiang Mai, was issued
\non Saturday, the official said.<\/p>\n
The 10 traffickers, all Thais of Chinese origin, were arrested
\nin a November sweep in those three provinces and Bangkok. They
\nare alleged to be key members of Burmese opium warlord Khun Sa's
\ntrafficking ring.<\/p>\n
The official declined to elaborate on why the advisory was
\nthought necessary and issued on Saturday when the arrests were
\nmade in November.<\/p>\n
The arrests were at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
\nAdministration (DEA) and a Thai court was yesterday to rule on
\nwhether to grant extradition of the 10 to the United States,
\nwhere they have been indicted on drugs charges.<\/p>\n
A senior member of Khun Sa's guerrilla organization said
\nearlier this week that at least two of the ten suspects were
\nassociates of Khun Sa.<\/p>\n
The half-Shan and half-Chinese Khun Sa, who has also been
\nindicted by a U.S. court, commands an 8,000-strong guerrilla army
\nin northeastern Myanmar's Shan state.<\/p>\n
Thai and Western anti-narcotics officials say he is one of the
\nworld's leading drug traffickers.<\/p>\n
He says he is a Shan nationalist fighting the Myanmarese junta
\nfor the autonomy of Shan state. He denies he is a drug trafficker
\nsaying he only taxes opium caravans passing through his areas of
\ncontrol in the Myanmarese section of the Golden Triangle opium-
\ngrowing region.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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