Drug War

[Nereus]

Maybe this clown is taking some of them, along with his booze. A barbed wire fence FFS!
If it was not so serious it would be laughable.
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Chalerm: Drug war success in 1 year

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... -in-1-year

Deputy PM Chalerm Yubamrung says he's certain the war-on-drugs national agenda will achieve its goal in one year, as promised by the government.

He said this success would be the result of cooperation between police forces and the army in building a barbed wire fence along the northern border which will limit smugglers' entry routes into Thailand.

The increased border protection would funnel the traffickers into more checkpoints, leading to more arrests.

He said that he would be visiting Chiang Mai next week to meet with authorities and the administrations of eight northern provinces to discuss drug issues.

He said he has made the war-on-drugs a regional agenda with the ultimate goal to stop the widespread presence of illicit drugs in Thailand by guarding the border.

He also said that he would be paying more attention to cough medicine and other medicines that contain ingredients that could be used for drug production. Police would be looking to stop both outbound drug ingredients and inbound drugs.

Mr Chalerm also said two suspects had been arrested in today'seizure of four million methamphetamine pills in Chian Rai. Two others were still on the run but had been identified and police would obtain warrants for their arrest.

He said he had told police to exercise restraint in the pursuit and to avoid extrajudicial killing.
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And today this:

Police seize 4 million speed pills in Chiang Rai

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... chiang-rai

Chiang Rai police yesterday seized more than 4 million methamphetamine, or speed, tablets from a pickup truck left in Mae Chan district.

Provincial police chief Surachet Thopunyanon said his team received a tip-off that a large amount of illegal drugs would be trafficked into Thailand via the Mae Ai-Mae Chan Road.

Investigators started tracking a group of suspected drug traffickers. The suspects managed to run away but left a pickup truck with a Lampang licence plate in Ban Lao Fu Moo 20 village in tambon Patung.

Police found 34 backpacks in the truck with 60 packets of methamphetamine tablets in each bag. Altogether, 4.08 million tablets were found.

Police identified the owner of the truck as Chidphon Bua-ngoen, a resident of Lampang's Ngao district. The person believed to be the driver yesterday is known as Wutthiphong Kitbamrungkun or Cha-sue Chaside, an assistant headman in Ban Chakorna village.

Police will track the two down, said Pol Maj Gen Surachet.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung told a news conference that Chiang Rai police on Thursday arrested two drug trafficking suspects and seized 200,000 methamphetamine tablets.

Mr Chalerm claimed that drug trafficking in Thailand has been declining because of the police's operations.

"I thank Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief, for building barbed wire fences along the Sai River in Chiang Rai. The fences have made it more difficult for drug traffickers to enter Thailand," he said.

Mr Chalerm will this weekend visit Lop Buri, which he claimed is a distribution hub for narcotics.

"My sources say the province is now the Colombia of Asean," he said.

The government's main drugs suppression strategy is to prevent reactant substances for drug production from leaving the country and to keep narcotic drugs from coming in. Mr Chalerm is confident the measures will lead to a reduction of the drugs problem.

Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday voiced his concern that space is running out for the storage of seized narcotics under the care of the Food and Drug Administration. The facility has a capacity to hold up to 30 tonnes of drugs and now stores 25 tonnes.

"Over the past four to five months, the amount of evidence drugs sent for storage has doubled," Mr Witthaya said.

Drugs kept in storage are for evidence in cases still on trial. They can be destroyed only at the end of the judicial process. If a case is suspended, the evidence must be kept for at least 20 years, or until the case resumes and concludes.

Mr Witthaya said he would ask the cabinet for an expansion of the storage facility or for a change in the law so that the impounded drugs could be kept for a shorter period.

[Nereus]

Fence plan is full of holes

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... l-of-holes

The sweet words of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung about his personal programmes to fight drug trafficking, actually provide little hope. Mr Chalerm tried to assure the country that his rather simple tactic against drug smuggling is going to effectively end drug abuse and smuggling within a year.

His plan is to build a fence of barbed wire along parts of the northern border with Myanmar. In Mr Chalerm's opinion, drug smugglers will be so penned in behind the fence that it will be simple for the army and police border guards to pick them up and end the problem by next winter.

The plan is simple to be sure, but the claim that it will be effective is, at best, simplistic. One must wonder, just for example, if Mr Chalerm has even visited the remote border areas of the North. The hills, streams, rivers and villages of the far North are major problems for any would-be fence builder. Even if such a fence could be erected, his plan calls for a solid barrier with occasional and official border-crossing gaps to be staffed by police and customs.

This might look good on paper but, like assembling fence materials and builders in the jungles, it will be a little more difficult in real life. For example, Mr Chalerm thinks barbed wire would deter smuggling. But for a few hundred baht, a would-be smuggler or any other citizen can buy wire cutters that will make the fence disappear. A wire fence, even if built, would have to be monitored and patrolled 24 hours a day _ and even then drug traffickers could slip through about as easily as they do today with no fence.

Mr Chalerm has always been on the right side of the drugs problems. But too often, including here, he has spoken and urged action without thinking the problem through. For reasons only he knows, the deputy premier has ignored many facts about this complicated problem.

Last month, he recommended quick execution of drug convicts, as if the ultimate penalty would somehow halt the problem of drug trafficking. Now he has taken a hugely misleading stand on a single facet of the fight against drugs, and promised a total solution.

The inconvenient truth is that drug smugglers have adapted to border controls for decades. They will continue to do so even if Mr Chalerm prevails in what may be a money- and time-wasting scheme. It is a fact that over the past several years, traffickers have sent more and more drugs to Laos and Cambodia for smuggling into Thailand.

With his problem to end most drug smuggling in a year, Mr Chalerm may be trying to win votes or simply to place a "no-problem" label on this huge and multi-headed problem. Either way, it is an unwise statement at best.

There is no single solution to battling drug trafficking. The deputy prime minister needs to take the problem more seriously. The public knows very well how serious the situation is, and how many facets there are to the problem.

No border fence and no other single and simple idea will end drug trafficking. This is a costly, sometimes murderous, threat to society and to national security, and it deserves a realistic approach instead of unconvincing political talk

[Spitfire]

Chalerm is gaff-prone and good at making sweeping statements without giving it due consideration first. I am surprised that he has survived for so long as he really only helps the Democrats.

[Lung Per]

Two questions immedialy hit my mind;

1) Who owns the barbed wire factory? Relatives or friends?
2) Has he heard of barbed wire carrying 250 volts?

[Takiap]

Personally, I think his idea of a fence is so stupid, that it's not even worthy of debate. How embarrassing for Thailand to have someone like him in government.