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BURMESE BORN DRUG DEALER TO BE EXTR



Subject: BURMESE BORN DRUG DEALER TO BE EXTRADITED TO US

20/5/97
                         BANGKOK -- A Thai court ordered the extradition of
a man
                         allegedly involved in smuggling the biggest
shipment of heroin
                         ever seized in the United States.

                         Li Yun-chung, 57, had requested quick extradition
to the United
                         States. He was indicted in U.S. District Court in
New York last
                         May in connection with 1,070 pounds of heroin,
worth about
                         $50 million, that was seized in Hayward, Calif., in
1991. 

                         Li, a Burmese-born Chinese with Thai residency, was
arrested in
                         Bangkok last July but jumped bail and fled to
Burma. Authorities
                         there turned Li over to Thailand on Saturday during
an official
                         visit to Burma by Thai Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh.

                         The judge who released Li on $200,000 bail in February,
                         Somchai Udomyong, is under investigation. When Thai
                         authorities interviewed Li on his return, he said
he bought his
                         freedom for $800,000. -- Reuter