Drug Arrest of Ranking Police Offic (r)

[banya@xxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: Drug Arrest of Ranking Police Official Timed to Coincide with

INTERPOL/Rangoon Confernce on Heroin
To: **YOMA3 <YOMA3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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cc: burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx, maungthwin@xxxxxxxxxxx, Kzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

n Thu, 25 Feb 1999, YOMA3 wrote:

> <bigger>Drug Arrest of Ranking Police Official Timed to Coincide with 
> 
> INTERPOL/Rangoon Confernce on Heroin
> 
> </bigger>
> 
> 
> The arrest on charges of narcotics distribution by Burmese Military
> Intelligence of a ranking police 
> 
> official in Kawthaung District apparently signals a willingness on the
> part of the SPDC to get tough 
> 
> with its own officials involved in the drug trade. At least that is the
> public relations point that the 
> 
> government is hoping to make by timing the arrest to occur during the
> recently opened 
> 
> INTERPOL Conference on Heroin being conducted in Rangoon.
> 
> 
> Nyunt Oo (B.C. No. La/72850), a high ranking police official in the port
> district of Kawthaung in 
> 
> Southern Mergui District, was arrested on 23 February while in possession
> of 1.83 Kg of refined 
> 
> heroin packed into soap boxes. He was said to be waiting to make delivery
> yo a narcotics trafficker 
> 
> from Ranong in Thailand. Among his effects was discovered the sum of
> 400,000 baht. According to 
> 
> the inquiry report of MI Bureau 19, Nyunt Oo had been involved in
> trafficking heroin since his 
> 
> posting to Kawthaung in June 1998 and for a considerable time prior to
> that while he was stationed 
> 
> in Shan State.
> 
> 
> Burma is considered by most international observers to be the single
> largest heroin producing 
> 
> country. Indeed, representatives from the DEA in the US (among countless
> other international 
> 
> investigative agencies) have long maintained that SPDC/Slorc officials
> and personnel have a long and 
> 
> close involvement with the drugs trade in Burma. It should come as no
> surprise, then, to hear of the 
> 
> arrest of one such official in the trading port district of Kawthaung.
> Indeed, if this arrest is to signal 
> 
> the beginning of a crack-down on SPDC Government officials and personnel,
> then perhaps the 
> 
> participants in the INTERPOL conference will in the next few days witness
> the arrest and 
> 
> incarceration of a long list of SPDC military officers and generals. 
> 
> 
> And yet the likelihood of any serious internal policing by the SPDC
> remains very unlikely. It is 
> 

> relatively easy to find scapegoats in provincial backwaters who trade
> insignificant quantities of 
> 
> heroin. And yet it remains difficult for the Government to divert
> attention from the fact that the most 
> 
> powerful  "heroin kings" remain protected by the SPDC military. Khun Hsar
> and Law-Sit han stand 
> 
> little chance of facing a similar fate as Nyunt Oo. Indeed, Khun Hsar is
> likely very much enjoying the 
> 
> sweet irony of international narcotics authorities debating his fate
> while he relaxes in the comfort of 
> 
> his heroin derived riches.
> 
> 
> When the SPDC begins arresting those "heroin kings" and those who have
> laundered black money 
> 
> into white, then it can be said that there is truly a shift in the drug
> policies of Burma. Sadly that day 
> 
> has not arrived with the arrest of luckless Nyunt Oo.  
> 
> 
>