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Bkk Post-Reward for Wei's capture n



Subject: Bkk Post-Reward for Wei's capture not rescinded

Bangkok Post July 19, 1999.
Reward for Wei's capture not rescinded

Drug warlord still at large in jungle base
Nusara Thaitawat

The US State Department has confirmed that the US$2 million (72 million
baht) reward for ethnic Wa drug warlord Wei Hsueh Kang's capture is still
on, even as evidence to prosecute him in the United States has become weak,
according to a top US anti- narcotics official.

Rand Beers, US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs, told Bangkok Post in an interview on Friday that
until the US Justice Department makes its final disposition on Wei's
indictment, the reward stays as it is.

"We (at the State Department) are not in any way going to disrupt that
judicial process by any action on our part," he said.

Wei is a key figure of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), accused by both the
US and Thailand as the biggest drug trafficking organisation in the Golden
Triangle. He is wanted on US federal drug violation charges in the Eastern
District of New York. His indictment was issued in 1993.

Anti-narcotics sources in New York and Bangkok fear that evidence against
Wei may not be as strong, with the death of one key witness of confirmed
natural causes, and the completion of the jail term of another key witness,
a convicted drug trafficker who had agreed in a plea bargain to testify
against Wei.

The sources said the reward is being tied to the Thai case against Wei,
arrested in 1986 for trafficking in 680kg of heroin for which he was
sentenced to death by the Appeals Court.

Wei had been acquitted by the Criminal Court and was granted bail pending
the verdict of the Appeals Court.

"The terms of the reward pro gramme says 'leading to the indictment and
prosecution'; it doesn't talk about where," said Mr Beers. He declined to
comment on the fate of the indictment, saying it was a legal issue to be
addressed by the Justice Department.

Mr Beers was in Bangkok last week to attend a graduation ceremony of the
Washington-sponsored International Law Enforcement Academy.

Meanwhile, some 800-strong Thai government forces deployed since last week
over a 40km-long and 3km-deep stretch along the Thai-Burmese border from Mae
Ai district in Chiang Mai to Mae Chan and Mae Fah Luang districts in Chiang

Rai, continued to exert pressure on the UWSA and other smaller drug
trafficking groups.

The UWSA's southern military command is located across from Mae Ai district.
Thai anti-narcotics officials estimated that some one million
methamphetamine tablets, mostly from UWSA-controlled areas, filter through
the border each day.