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International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998
Released by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs,
U.S.Department of State 
Washington, DC, February 1999

THAILAND

I. Summary

Throughout 1998, Thailand continued its long tradition of cooperation
with the United States and the international community in anti-drug
programs. Thailand cemented its role as a leader in regional drug
control programs by co-establishing the International Law Enforcement
Academy (ILEA) with the U.S. in Bangkok. Despite a serious domestic
methamphetamine abuse problem and deep government budget cutbacks,
Thailand continued to cooperate fully with the U.S. in narcotics
law enforcement and drug control efforts. Legal and judicial cooperation
also became more streamlined. Additional defendants arrested in
1994's operation "Tiger Trap" were extradited to the
U.S., and new cooperative law enforcement programs were initiated.
Thailand's agreement to extradite to the U.S. Thai citizens and
residents who claim Thai citizenship continued to expand from
a base of near zero four years ago to a total of six individuals
extradited in 1997 and five in 1998.

Thailand has one of the most effective narcotic crop control programs
in the world. USG analysts estimated that Thailand's opium production
in the 1998 growing season declined 36 percent to 16 metric tons.
Cultivation decreased by 18 percent. Reflecting trends of previous
years, opium farmers continue to cultivate smaller, more isolated
fields and engage in multiple cropping to avoid eradication. A
drought last year adversely affected the production of all agricultural
commodities, including opium. The 1999 eradication campaign was
inaugurated in mid-November 1998. A concentrated effort in December
and January will be necessary, however, to destroy the poppy before
it can be harvested. Activities related to heroin production,
such as the refining of raw opium into morphine base, continued
in northern border areas where drug producers often combined heroin
operations with the manufacture of methemphetamines. Thailand
has yet to become a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention due to
its lack of anti-money laundering legislation. A bill is currently
in House/Senate committee where differences over the types of
predicate crimes covered are being debated. The Royal Thai Government
(RTG) remains committed to the passage of a law with as broad
application as possible. Seizures and court actions under the
asset seizure law continued. With DEA support, the Thai Police
established the first in a series of specially trained narcotics
law enforcement units to target major trafficking groups. Thailand's
programs aimed at treatment, epidemiology of substance abuse,
and demand reduction were maintained and continue to be effective.
Drug trafficking and abuse, notably methamphetamine use among
students, was especially troubling to Thai society over the past
year while, at the same time, drug control agencies, including
the Narcotics Control Board, the police, and education and treatment
organizations faced budgetary cutbacks resulting from fiscal austerity
programs.

II. Status of Country

The importance of Thailand as a source of opiates for the international
market continued to decline in 1998. Thailand's opium poppy crop
accounts for less than one percent of the regional production
of opiates. Opium from Burma is necessary to satisfy Thai internal
demand. The spread of methaemphetamine is a serious concern as
traffickers in Thailand, Laos, and Burma are producing and/or
dealing in both opiates and stimulants. Thailand's importance
as a transit country diminished somewhat as smugglers have developed
new smuggling routes. Nevertheless, good roads in northern Thailand
connect refineries in Burma with the remainder of Thailand's excellent
transport system. Thailand's position as a regional airline hub
is also important. The trade in arms, precursor chemicals and
other supplies into Burma, and the outflow of drugs from that
country have diversified over the past three years through China,
Laos, and Vietnam.

Thailand still produces marijuana in the northeast, although this
production has been reduced due to the intervention of police
and security forces in recent years. There continue to be reports
of marijuana cultivation in the northern and southern regions
of the country. Out of domestic political necessity, Thailand
has shifted drug control resources from the traditional heroin
and marijuana targets to the domestic methamphetamine problem.
Like heroin, methamphetamine is mainly produced in and enters
the Kingdom from Burma.

Seizure and arrest data and treatment prevalence for stimulant
abuse indicate a rapidly growing problem, especially among students.
As a result of the inflow of methamphetamine, Thailand has experienced
an increase of polydrug use among traditional heroin users such
as the hill tribes in the north and fishermen in the south. Hill
tribe abusers continue to abandon opium for heroin and methamphetamine.
There were also unconfirmed reports that traffickers associated
with the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Burma are producing the
stimulant "Ecstasy" for the Thai urban youth market.
Existing heroin trafficking routes have now been expanded for
use in trafficking methamphetamines. A study of the drug abuse
situation in Thailand published in 1995 by the Thai Development
and Research Institute (TDRI) continues to be a baseline estimate
of drug abuse in Thailand-1.27 million drug users. This figure
comprises those abusing stimulants and inhalants, heroin, opium,
and marijuana.

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 1998

Policy Initiatives. Despite the current climate of budgetary
austerity, Thailand continues support for programs to combat the
production and trafficking of illicit drugs. National level plans,
implemented by various agencies and coordinated through the Office
of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), are designed to integrate
enforcement, treatment, public awareness and demand reduction
programs. Strategies to improve control and increase interdiction
capabilities along Thailand's porous borders are currently under
consideration. With DEA support, the Thai Police established the
first in a series of specially trained narcotics law enforcement
units to target major trafficking groups. Thai initiatives also
include improved cross-border cooperation with Burmese enforcement
authorities in an attempt to stem the flow of stimulants smuggled
from Burma.

Based on its successes and experience, Thailand has been a leader
in organizations like ASEAN and the United Nations. Recently,
the RTG co-founded an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA)
in Bangkok with the U.S. The ILEA will provide regional law enforcement
and criminal justice officials with the opportunity to improve
their professional skills, and share information and foster coordination
in countering narcotics and transnational crime. Thailand actively
participates in the sub-regional action mechanism that has established
cooperation and dialogue on narcotics issues under UN auspices
among six countries: China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and
Cambodia.

In 1998, the Prime Minister issued two orders designed to mobilize
and organize counter-narcotics activities. Prime Minister's Order
141 aims to facilitate collaboration among all government agencies
as well interested parts of civil society, such as NGO's, professional
organizations, and religious groups, under the leadership of the
Ministry of Interior. PM Order 141 focuses on the interception
of drug smuggling along Thailand's northern border and has the
ONCB as its main coordinating agency. Thailand is largely in compliance
with the 1988 UN Convention, except for not having a money laundering
law. It has and enforces laws against the cultivation, production,
distribution, sale, transport, and financing of illicit drugs.
The asset seizure and conspiracy law which was passed in 1991
continued to generate cases and forfeiture actions last year.
As of August 31, 1998, 439 cases opened under the asset seizure
and conspiracy statutes accounted for over $22 million seized
or frozen. Fifty-one other cases still under investigation of
major trafficking organizations involve sums of over $15 million
dollars in assets.

Accomplishments. The Foreign Ministry, the judiciary, the
Royal Thai Police, and the Office of the Attorney General have
developed expedited extradition mechanisms and have worked closely
with U.S. legal experts. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
also published extradition guidelines that could potentially impede
extraditions of Thai citizens, overall cooperation has remained
strong.

Since 1994, the Thai government has cooperated in extraditing
38 defendants and/or fugitives to the U.S., thirty-two of which
involved narcotics-related crimes. Sixteen individuals were extradited
(15 narcotics-related) in 1997, and fourteen (11 narcotics-related)
in 1998. Five of the fourteen individuals extradited in 1998 were
Thai nationals. Others extradited include remaining fugitives
under 1994's operation "Tiger Trap" and defendants ranging
from West African traffickers to Thai and Chinese syndicate operators
and brokers. There is one narcotics-related case in custody appealing
extradition, and three others in custody facing Thai charges prior
to extradition proceedings being initiated.

Controls exist in Thailand on precursor chemicals named in the
1988 UN Drug Convention. Thai and Laotian officials have also
agreed to cooperate regarding the control of precursor chemicals.
There is an active governmental and non-governmental involvement
in demand reduction activities at both the national and local
level. Thai NGO activities are coordinated through the anti-narcotics
coordinating committee (ANCC). Thailand is active in international
therapeutic community programs and again hosted the International
Federation of NGO's for the Prevention of Drug and Substance Abuse
and the Colombo Plan grouping of therapeutic communities conferences
in 1998. Thailand is a member of the UN Commission on Narcotic
Drugs (CND) and is the designated law enforcement coordinator
for ASEAN's Senior Officials on Drugs (ASOD) group. A drug epidemiology
working group reports on emerging drug abuse trends and participates
in regional fora.

Law Enforcement Efforts. The Office of the Narcotics Control
Board (ONCB), the Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau (PNSB) and
most recently, the Royal Thai Army, Third Region Command covering
North Thailand, are the entities primarily responsible for the
implementation of national level drug enforcement programs. These
agencies coordinate with local police and enforcement bodies such
as border patrol police, provincial police and Royal Thai Customs
on narcotics cases. Training of local units by ONCB and PNSB continues.
The Northern Drug Task Force is staffed by officials from both
ONCB and PNSB who jointly develop drug investigations. A second
task force in the Bangkok area became operational in 1996 and
is soon to be reinvigorated by inclusion in a DEA/Thai police
special program. The third in southern Thailand continues preparations
for activation in the near future. A program to enhance maritime
interdiction capabilities of the Royal Thai Navy in the Gulf of
Thailand is under development. The United States has continued
to support these organizations through provision of operational
assistance, commodities, and training provided jointly by the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of
Defense (DOD) and the State Department Bureau for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Enforcement actions
by the border patrol police in northern Thailand have produced
seizures of opiates and methane. The Border Patrol Police have
also received training from DEA and DOD elements this year.

During 1998, a new interagency initiative supported by the USG,
sponsored a series of programs designed to increase judicial cooperation
with RTG authorities. Under this "Professionals in Residence
Program", an Assistant U.S. Attorney and a U.S. Federal Judge
worked directly with the Thai Attorney General's Department and
the Ministry of Justice. Digital video conferencing has also been
a feature of the program, bringing together Thai judicial and
enforcement officials with U.S. legal experts in live video conferences.

U.S. and Thai officials cooperate in international investigations,
including cases involving West African trafficking groups and
other international syndicates. Thai officials also cooperated
with neighboring countries through outreach, training and liaison,
and supported regional training initiatives of their own as well
as hosting DEA training programs.

According to ONCB figures, about a quarter ton of heroin was seized
during the first eight months of 1998. Drug related arrest cases
totaled almost 105,000 during the first eight months of the year,
reflecting both the growth in the use of drugs and governmental
efforts to counteract it.

Corruption. The Royal Thai Government does not condone
the cultivation, production, trafficking, or financing of illicit
narcotics. The Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau and the Office
of the Narcotics Control Board continue to exhibit a high degree
of professionalism and honesty derived in part from long standing
relationships and institution-building programs with international
drug control organizations, including those from the United States.
But, narcotics-related corruption remains an open secret in Thailand.
Army and police departments lack the necessary internal mechanisms
to punish high ranking corrupt officials. Usually the culprit
is transferred to an inactive post until the matter is forgotten.
However, as middle and upper class Thai youth fall victim to burgeoning
methamphetamine use and other drug-related problems, blind eye
acceptance of corruption appears to be lessening. Thailand's exceptionally
open and free press has sensitized more to the problem while modestly
strengthening government reformers. Long-standing institution-building
by the USG and other donors appears to be the best method to bring
about corrective change.

Narcotics trafficking poses special problems in countering corruption
because of the fantastic profits generated and the resultant availability
of cash for either facilitating payoffs or completely co-opting
law enforcement personnel. Stories of narco-corruption abound
in the Thai media while little effective action against corruption
is ever reported. On the other hand, American law enforcement
officials have noted that security of complex operations against
major traffickers has been maintained which indicates an internal
sensitivity to the issue as well as knowledge of those police
officers and other governmental officials who can or cannot be
trusted with easily saleable, sensitive information.

Agreements and Treaties. Once Thailand implements money
laundering laws, it will have fulfilled all requirements for compliance
with the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The U.S.-Thai Mutual Legal Assistance
Treaty (MLAT) that went into effect in 1993 continued to prove
useful this past year. U.S. drug-related requests for assistance
under the MLAT have been consistently honored by the Royal Thai
Government. Thailand has also been extremely cooperative with
the U.S. under the 1991 Extradition Treaty and high-profile cases
have resulted in an ever increasing number of extraditions.

Cultivation/Production. The northern border areas of Thailand
are the principal location for poppy cultivation in the country,
although the RTG also reported an increase in poppy cultivation
in Tak province in the lower north in 1998. Opium has a long history
in the region, and the use of the crop as a medicine and source
of cash for certain hill tribe communities has been a fact of
social and economic life. The government's control efforts have
combined eradication of the crop with development, improved infrastructure,
and economic support designed to offer growers alternatives to
narcotics production.

Thailand has one of the most successful narcotic crop control
programs in the world. Over the past twenty years efforts to discourage
cultivation and later to penalize growers through an active eradication
campaign have proven effective. The eradication campaign is one
of the main reasons refineries no longer operate in Thailand,
and has reduced opium cultivation in Thailand to a point where
opium must now be imported to meet the requirements of domestic
addiction. Thailand's crop control programs have resulted in a
reduction of the amount of poppy grown from an estimate of up
to 200 metric tons produced in the 1970's, to 16 metric tons based
on U.S. estimates in 1998. Opium yield was estimated in 1998 at
11.5 kilograms per hectare. Last season's reduction in the poppy
crop resulted from a more aggressive eradication effort, and a
drop in cultivation-which is the ultimate goal of the program.
A serious drought last year also reduced crop yields. The Thai
Government estimates that only ten percent of Thai poppy growers
use opium themselves, and even these sell their higher quality
product for cash and consume cheaper drugs from Burma. Since brokers
and middlemen play a strong role in the production equation and
influence hill tribe growers, the incentive to plant a crop exists,
even with the risk of having it destroyed by the government. Evolving
opium cultivation practices of out-of-season poppy planting and
multiple cropping require much more effort and capital, and thus
reflect the significant adjustments traditional growers have had
to make in the face of eradication efforts. A mark of the growers'
sophistication is the practice of interspersing the poppy plants
with legitimate vegetable production. Sometimes, after the eradication
officials destroy the poppies, the field owner duns the local
government for the collateral damage to the legitimate crops,
the owner only admitting to lawful agriculture and blaming a sneaky
unknown neighbor for the illegal crop. The stubbornness and greed
of Thailand's residual growers and their ability to increase cultivation
in some geographically difficult to control areas argue for continued
active support for the opium control program.

An important initiative in crop control supported by the U.S.
and other donors has been the establishment of Chiang Mai University's
Highland Agricultural Training Center. Opened in 1994 with assistance
from the Government of Japan, this center provides hands-on training
and experience to farmers in alternative crop techniques and provides
a site for training farmers from neighboring countries.

Methodology. The RTG in an effort coordinated and implemented
by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and with cooperation
from the army and police authorities annually surveys the opium
crop in Thailand. The RTG survey and analysis methodology has
continually benefited from updating by empirical data collected
in situ and is unmatched in the region. Both ground and aerial
surveys are used. Survey data is shared with eradication campaign
operating units. ONCB executes its survey before, during and after
the traditional opium cultivation window to cover early and late
season crops. Over the past years, however, ONCB conclusions have
reflected more cautious estimates of cultivation trends than the
USG survey. The USG estimation for the 1997 survey was a 24 percent
decrease from the 1996 estimate, while ONCB estimated a 12 percent
increase for the same period.

Drug Flow/Transit. Thai opium production is dwarfed by
the amount of opium produced elsewhere in Southeast Asia, especially
that from Burma. Opiates move into Thailand for consumption and
also for onward shipment to world markets, making Thailand both
a consumption and a transit country. Over the past several years,
and especially since Khun Sa's "retirement," and the
occupation of his former territory by the Burma Army, there has
been a steady increase in the use of alternate routes, mainly
through China but also through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Criminals
take advantage of opportunities presented by countries with relatively
weak law enforcement as well as the superior transportation infrastructure,
financial systems, and international cargo handling facilities
provided by Thailand's sophisticated economy. Unfortunately, neither
Thailand nor its regional law enforcement partners have the police
intelligence data to provide a breakout of tonnage or trafficking
patterns in the region.

Demand Reduction and Treatment Programs. Prevention and
demand reduction programs are coordinated through ONCB and managed
by various government agencies, with activities coordinated through
the Anti-Narcotics Coordinating Committee (ANCC). There are programs
in place with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education
to expand treatment and demand reduction in schools and in provincial
areas as well as to target specific high-risk groups including
students, fishermen, laborers, and long-haul truck drivers. A
longer term program within the Health Ministry aims to increase
the number of treatment facilities and spaces in therapeutic community
settings for detoxification and after care. Thailand is in the
forefront in the utilization of the therapeutic community and
narcotics anonymous models in treatment. The government and NGO's
have undertaken studies of drug abuse patterns in various population
sectors.

IV U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Based on guidelines in the national strategy, U.S. goals and objectives
in Thailand are:

To reduce the amount of illicit drugs (principally heroin) available
in the United States by assisting Thailand to counter the threat
of drug trafficking and support actions targeting drug traffickers
and their organizations.

Once Thailand enacts anti-money laundering legislation, assist
with programs to implement these new laws and with developing
other legal and enforcement tools, such as a strengthened conspiracy
law and development of a plea bargaining system.

Through continued cooperative investigations, indict traffickers
and cooperate in extraditions to the United States. Work toward
broadening allowable evidence rules in the Thai legal system to
enable more prosecutions and convictions of high-level traffickers
in Thailand.

Continue initiatives to reduce and eliminate opium poppy cultivation
through eradication and development of viable economic alternatives
for farmers.

Assist Thailand in its efforts to maintain and expand its drug
abuse awareness and demand reduction activities.

Assist Thailand with continued efforts to improve and streamline
its drug control institutions by fostering inter-agency cooperation
and institutional development.

Assist Thailand's efforts in outreach and cross-border enforcement,
development and demand reduction programs and support Thailand's
emergence as a center for the transfer of development technology,
for drug abuse training, and for individual law enforcement officer
skills building, institution building, and regional building of
transnational networks and cooperative mechanisms at the International
Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok.

Bilateral Cooperation. In addition to the Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaty (MLAT) and the Extradition Treaty referred to
elsewhere in this report, four State Department funded bilateral
project agreements continue in force:

Narcotics Law Enforcement: projects designed to improve
the ability of narcotics law enforcement agencies in responding
to the threat posed by powerful trafficking organizations. this
agreement provides commodity and training support for ONCB, PNSB
and other Thai law enforcement organizations, and supports efforts
aimed at improving institutions and judicial cooperation.

Narcotics Crop Control: funding is provided to the Royal
Thai Army Third Region (3 RTA), the ONCB, border patrol police
(BPP) and Provincial Police (PP) to assist the Royal Thai Government
in surveying, locating, and eradicating the illicit opium poppy
crop in northern Thailand and with some outreach and development
initiatives through organizations like the Army and Chiang Mai
University.

Demand Reduction: designed to assist Thai authorities to
improve and expand demand reduction programs and to increase private
sector and NGO involvement in the national drug abuse awareness
effort, and to target specific drug abuse problem areas.

Regional Initiatives: a project with the objective of supporting
Thailand's efforts at coordination, outreach and training for
countries in the region. Funds from this are also dedicated to
support the Bangkok International Law Enforcement Academy.

DEA works closely with Thai drug agencies in investigating major
heroin trafficking organizations, providing training to develop
Thai drug enforcement capabilities. The U.S. Customs Service and
Department of Defense have cooperated with various agencies on
anti-smuggling projects. In November 1998, four Thai Customs officials
attended a State Department-funded U.S. Customs Regional Airport
Interdiction Course in Penang, Malaysia. DOD is also supporting
training initiatives with selected border patrol and narcotics
police units, and has assisted the establishment of the regional
drug task forces. The United States Information Service (USIS)
arranges visitor programs for consultations on drug control issues
and is currently managing the professionals in residence program
in judicial affairs mentioned above. USIS also organizes video
conferences allowing experts in the U.S. and Thailand to consult
on narcotics, judicial, and law enforcement issues. USIS regularly
highlights significant narcotics-related stories and prepares
press releases and conferences on narcotics issues.

The Road Ahead. Thailand will continue as a regional leader
in drug control and law enforcement. The Kingdom will also cooperate
fully with the international community in this regard. Domestically,
Thailand's political development will continue to lag behind its
social and economic sophistication, but, as evidenced by the new
constitution, the traditional politics of influence and cronyism
is under pressure from an increasingly educated populace and economic
imperatives to move toward more rational and objective political
behavior patterns and legal structures. Money laundering legislation
currently under consideration by a joint House/Senate committee
reflects some of the changes in Thai politics, and also some of
the continuing problems. Other useful additions to Thailand's
management of its law enforcement problems would be a robust conspiracy
law, the introduction of plea bargaining, and the broadening of
evidence rules. All of the above legal instruments either help
take the profit out of narco-trafficking or assist the criminal
justice system with making cases against major traffickers and
investors in illicit activities.

The U.S. and Thailand look forward to continued broad ranging
law enforcement cooperation. Additional extraditions are expected,
and the strengthening of Thai legal and judicial processes and
the political system auger well for the future. The crop control
program will be maintained. Regional cooperation will greatly
expand through the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok.
Thailand should continue to develop systems of internal control
and legal and administrative tools to counter the destabilizing
impact of corruption and the influence of organized criminal groups.
As Thailand has established its reputation in anti-narcotics efforts,
neighboring countries have been encouraged to follow aspects of
the Thai model. It is in the interest of the U.S. to help Thailand
succeed.

[end of document]

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