Americans warned of Thai drug-gang retaliation

Americans warned of Thai drug-gang retaliation

BANGKOK (Reuter): The United States has warned its citizens to
be careful traveling in northern Thailand because revenge attacks
by drug gangs were possible after the arrest of 10 suspected
heroin traffickers, a U.S. Embassy official said yesterday.

"As a result of the recent arrest of several leading drug
traffickers, the State Department is concerned about possible
reprisals," the official said.

The warning, which covers the northern Thai provinces of Mae
Hong Son, Chiang Rai and northern parts of Chiang Mai, was issued
on Saturday, the official said.

The 10 traffickers, all Thais of Chinese origin, were arrested
in a November sweep in those three provinces and Bangkok. They
are alleged to be key members of Burmese opium warlord Khun Sa's
trafficking ring.

The official declined to elaborate on why the advisory was
thought necessary and issued on Saturday when the arrests were
made in November.

The arrests were at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) and a Thai court was yesterday to rule on
whether to grant extradition of the 10 to the United States,
where they have been indicted on drugs charges.

A senior member of Khun Sa's guerrilla organization said
earlier this week that at least two of the ten suspects were
associates of Khun Sa.

The half-Shan and half-Chinese Khun Sa, who has also been
indicted by a U.S. court, commands an 8,000-strong guerrilla army
in northeastern Myanmar's Shan state.

Thai and Western anti-narcotics officials say he is one of the
world's leading drug traffickers.

He says he is a Shan nationalist fighting the Myanmarese junta
for the autonomy of Shan state. He denies he is a drug trafficker
saying he only taxes opium caravans passing through his areas of
control in the Myanmarese section of the Golden Triangle opium-
growing region.