Key heroin suspect gives Thais the

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Key heroin suspect gives Thais the slip

Wednesday March 12 1:56 AM EST 

Key heroin suspect gives Thais the slip

BANGKOK, March 12 (UPI) _ Thai police are searching for a key suspect in the
biggest known shipment
of heroin to the United States and wondering why a Thai criminal court
allowed him to go free on bail. 

Court officials say Li Yun-Chung (``Lee Yoon-Choong''), who is alleged to be
involved in the shipment of
1,071 pounds of heroin seized by U.S. Customs authorities in in Oakland,
California, in 1991, failed to
turn up at a hearing last Friday and had apparently jumped bail. 

Local press reports say the chief of Thailand's Criminal Court has ordered
an internal investigation into
possible irregularities in allowing Li to go free on $192,000 bail. 

Thai police have launched a nationwide manhunt for the suspect, although he
is believed to have fled to
Burma. 

U.S. Embassy officials reportedly protested to the Thai prime minister and
justice minister after it was
learned that Li had been granted bail. 

Li had been fighting against American attempts to extradite him since his
arrest in Thailand on July 23. 

American officials held out little hope that Li could be extradited from
Burma, which is the source of
about 60 percent of the heroin entering the United States. 

_-