Chiang Rai News
Mekong Subregion Narcotics Suppression Teams Join Together for “Safe Mekong”
CHIANG RAI – Five Countries of the Mekong Subregion have met in Myanmar today to take part in the joint anti-drug operation held by Narcotics Suppression Officers.
The Narcotics suppression units from China, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia who will be working together under the operation called Safe Mekong. The Narcotics Suppression Units will be patrolling areas with records of drug trafficking in search of narcotics across the Mekong Subregion.
There task is to continue from the previous mission which proved to put drug gangs under pressure. Chinese patrol officials last month captured numerous drug suspects and intercepted China-bound transport of one million speed pills and 200 kilograms of active ingredients. Beijing said armed drug gangs in the Mekong Subregion had been less rampant compared to the past three years.
Thai anti-narcotics authorities meanwhile confiscated property worth over 70 million baht from drug gangs in Chiang Rai. A joint patrol consisting Laotian, Cambodian and Thai authorities has also found that the drug problem in Cambodia is less severe than other parts of the Mekong Subregion.
Myanmar, who has shown support for the project all along, has intensified the search in border areas and heightened the surveillance in the minority groups, whom the Burmese government fears would build up their economy through drug trade and money laundering.
The member countries have also agreed to exchange arrest warrants against drug suspects of their respective countries along with the suspects’ information. Thai authorities are preparing to send a list of 10 suspects still at large to the other four nations.