Burma says 13m speed pills seized from Wa state army
Military and narcotics officials along the northern border are upbeat over unconfirmed reports their Burmese counterparts intercepted 13 million methamphetamine tablets bound for Thailand, an army source said yesterday.
The speed pills, known as ya ba, are believed to have been produced by the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), a pro-Rangoon outfit that has operated with impunity in an autonomous region since it obtained a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese junta in 1989. Since 1999, the UWSA has been forcibly relocating villagers living in their area along the Chinese border to newly built towns across the border from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Wa leaders claim the relocation is part of an opium-eradication programme, but Thai officials see the growing presence of ethnic Wa villagers in UWSA-controlled area as a threat to national security. According to the source, an official from the Narcotics Control Board and an officer from the US Drug Enforcement Agency were invited to Keng Tung, a commercial centre of Burma's Shan State, for a meeting with Burmese officials about the drug situation in the Golden Triangle. The pair was informed about the seizure of 13 million tablets, as well as the detention of 25 drug traffickers and confiscation of 100 AK-47 rifles. The drugs, along with the men and weapons, were said to belong to a UWSA unit under the command of Wei Hsueh-kang, one of the Golden Triangle's most notorious warlords, according to the source. Wei, indicted by a US Federal Court for heroin trafficking, has a US$2-million (Bt75.23-million) reward on his head. The NationChiang Mai
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