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Bangkok Post(26-9-99) DEA still on

Subject: Bangkok Post(26-9-99) DEA still on the case

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<br>
<font size=5>DEA still on the case <br>
<br>
</font><font size=3>INTERVIEW: <i>America's top drug buster in Bangkok
re-asserts the DEA's <br>
keen commitment to Thai suppression efforts<br>
<br>
</i>Since the war against amphetamines first made headlines over two
years ago, media coverage has focused on Thai military activities at the
border with Burma, police raids on local laboratories and arrests of drug
dealers.<br>
Working behind the scenes alongside Thai narcotics suppression officers
throughout that period were agents of the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), whose activities went largely unreported in the
local media.<br>
This has given rise to suggestions that the DEA is not concerned about
the flow of amphetamines into Thailand, and is only interested in
stopping heroin from going to the United States.<br>
Dismissing the suggestion as groundless, William Simpson, head of the
DEA?s Bangkok country office, said his agency has been doing everything
in its power to assist the Thai government in its campaign against drug
abuse, which is also a major problem in the United States.<br>
?We are extremely interested in the amphetamine and methamphetamine<br>
problem,? Mr Simpson said in a recent&nbsp; interview with <i>Sunday
Perspective.<br>
</i>DEA agents now working with their Thai counterparts have been
selected based on their experience in amphetamine investigations.<br>
?Most of the amphetamines come from the border areas between Burma<br>
and Thailand. Most of the people that are involved in that are also
involved in<br>
heroin. So we are helping ourselves and we are helping the Royal Thai
Government in fighting the war against drugs,? he explained.<br>
According to Mr Simpson, the DEA office sent over 100 Thai 
narcotics<br>
police officers for specialised training on amphetamine investigations in
the US last year.<br>
This is in addition to other regular&nbsp; training programmes provided
to Thai<br>
police officers by the DEA.. Basically, a Thai police officers are
trained to conduct surveillances, do cover-up operations, raid labs, work
on long-rang conspiracy investigations ,and become team leaders. The Thai
narcotics officers sent for&nbsp; training in the US last year won
high&nbsp; praise from their teachers.<br>
?The director of the programme told me and my staff that the Royal Thai 8
narcotics police officers were the best foreign students that they have
had throughout the entire programme of training,? said Mr Simpson.<br>
CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES<br>
The drug situation has changed since the DEA first arrived in Thailand 36
years ago, when the country was considered a source country for opium and
marijuana.<br>
?There was large scale poppy and marijuana cultivation, but this is no
longer the case,? said Simpson. ?It is no longer a source country today.
It?s a transit country.?<br>
Now the DEA has to deal with drug production bases in countries
surrounding Thailand.<br>
?Basically, each and every programme that we have to suppress narcotics
is extremely important. Drug prevention, education, eradication,
enforcement </font><font size=1> </font><font size=3>all these programmes
play a strong role,? said Simpson.<br>
But each country is different. Each country has different laws, different
treaties, he said.<br>
?We have to work according to the laws and the treaties we have with each
particular country.?<br>
The DEA has an office in Burma, but ?the way they work there is not the
same as we do here,? he noted.<br>
?We can?t do the training, we can?t do all the other things that we
normally do here in Thailand.?<br>
<br>
KUDOS FOR THAI OFFICERS<br>
In his opinion, the Royal Thai Police Office?s Narcotics Suppression
Bureau (NSB) deserves more credit than it is getting from the 
press.<br>
?You hear a lot of negative things but you don?t hear some of the
positive things about the police we work with,? he said. ?They have done
an outstanding job.?<br>
The public tend to be critical when they hear that more and more young
Thais are addicted to amphetamines. Drug seizures make newspaper
headlines almost every week. What are the police doing, they ask.<br>
Simpson felt the same way when he was heading a drug prevention and
education programme in New York City 28 years ago. That was before he
became a law enforcement officer.<br>
?I used to see drug dealers on the corners selling drugs. I went to the
telephone and called the police... The next day you see the guys back on
the streets and I would say, ?These people are not doing anything. These
cops are not doing what they are supposed to be doing,?? he
recalled.<br>
?I eventually became a narcotics agent </font><font size=1>...
</font><font size=3>and I started to understand that police officers
can?t just run up to somebody and say you?re under arrest, you are
selling pills. There is a legal process that one has to go 
through.?<br>
For the time being, the DEA office in Bangkok is working with Thai police
on the suppression of both amphetamines and heroin, which come from areas
controlled by the Wa.<br>
Drug traders have different routes and there are many ways to smuggle
heroin abroad, ?but I would not say that heroin is not coming here any
more,? said Simpson.<br>
Regarding its long-term plan, the DEA will continue the programmes that
It has in place with countries in the region, including Thailand,
Burma,Vietnam and Laos. </font><font size=1>*<br>
</font><font size=3>The DEA office in Thailand has over 80 employees. It
has a two-man Offlce in Vietnam, and a one-man office in Laos.<br>
?Our focus here is on Thailand,? said Simpson. ?And we support other
countries in whatever we can and in whatever is needed.?<br>
<br>
PROBLEMS IN AMERICA<br>
In the US, the first drug of choice is cocaine, followed by amphetamines
and heroin, according to Simpson.<br>
Unlike heroin which comes principally from opium grown in the Golden
Triangle, most of the amphetamines consumed in the-US come from Mexico
and from illegal laboratories within the United States itself.<br>
?This is a major problem in my country today,? he said.<br>
More Americans, especially children, are being exposed to drug use than
ever before (see charts).<br>
?As with heroin, meth (amphetamine) </font><font size=1>
</font><font size=3>known as ?speed? during the 60s and 70s
</font><font size=1> </font><font size=3>is trapping a whole new
generation of users,? says a DEA fact-sheet obtained by <i>Perspective
</i>this month.<br>
In Burma, the minority groups that are involved in amphetamine production
are also heroin producers. So both the US and Thailand are facing similar
problems.<br>
The difference is that the DEA agents have had more experience than their
Thai counterparts in this problem, said Simpson.<br>
?We have learned over the years that one agency can?t stop the war on
drugs alone. One nation can?t stop the war on drugs alone. We have to
work together as a team,? he said ?That?s the only way you?re going to
solve the problem.?<br>
And it?s not just enforcement. It?s also drug prevention, drug education,
and demand reduction programmes.<br>
?You have to start </font><font size=1>th</font><font size=3>ese
programmes the elementary schools, teaching kids at avery young age,? he
said. <br>
?This way, children will grow up knowing that drugs are no good for
them.?<br>
<br>
<b>Editor?s Note: </font></b><font size=3><i>This is
</font><font size=3>the third of a series
</font><font size=2>on</font><font size=1> <b>
</font></b><font size=3>the growing amphetamine roblem in Thailand. The
previous artiles <br>
were published on Sept 12 and 19.<br>
<br>
</font></i>
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