Drug lord's threat to US efforts

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ALBRIGHT TOUR

Drug lord's threat to US efforts
Date: 02/03/99


By CRAIG SKEHAN in Bangkok

The United States Secretary of State, Dr Madeleine Albright, arrives in
northern Thailand today to visit an opium eradication program amid growing
concerns over cross-border Thai links with the powerful Burmese drug lord
Wei Hsueh-kang.

Sources said Dr Albright would be briefed on a fortress-like enclave being
built by Wei in Burmese territory with the help of thousands of Thai
labourers.

The US has offered a $US2 million ($A3.2 million) reward for information
leading to the arrest of Wei, but there is mounting evidence that he has
fostered high-level alliances in Thailand.

A front-page story in the Bangkok Post yesterday reported that Wei's United
Wa State Army was building roads as well as water and electricity supplies
and fortified houses at a site called Mong Yawn in Burma's far north.

US and Thai intelligence operatives say Wei has become the biggest heroin
trafficker in the Golden Triangle, taking over from former drug lord Khun Sa.

Dr Albright's visit to the Golden Triangle underscores the high priority the
US is giving to stemming the massive flow of heroin from Burma, much of it
destined for North America, Europe and Australia.

Sources said Dr Albright would be briefed on developments on both sides of
the border when she arrives this afternoon in the northern Thai city of
Chiang Mai.

She will be visiting the Hmong tribal village of Nong Hoi where the Thai
Royal family sponsors a program to encourage the growing of crops other than
opium poppies.

While there has been considerable success with crop substitution in
Thailand, the country is still used for transhipment and money laundering by
drug barons on the Burmese side of the border.

Attempts by the US to foster poppy crop substitution in Burma have so far
met with very limited success.

This is partly because elements of the ruling Burmese military junta turn a
blind eye to opium growing by pro-government militias such as the United Wa
State Army.