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.