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NMSP arrests smuggler with amphetamines
Sat 17 May 2008,
Lawi weng
Over 3,000 amphetamine tablets were seized and a smuggler was arrested by the New Mon State Party (NMSP) near Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burma border on Friday evening, according to a source in the NMSP.
Saw Moe Win (38) is from the Karen ethnic minority. According to news source close from NMSP, the amphetamine trade is linked with the activities of the armed ceasefire group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).
The smuggler had hidden 18 packets of amphetamine underneath the jacket he was wearing. Each packet contained 200 pills. He got 1,000 Baht each time he made a trip.
He was arrested while he was driving his motor cycle across the NMSP checkpoint near the Thai-Burma border.
The pills were MDMA, type WY+R, and according to the smuggler they originated in Pegu division.
This arrest was not an isolated incident in the area. In February the NMSP arrested a smuggler for attempting to traffic over 8,000 pills.
The TPP border Township is under the administrative control of the Burmese military regime. Ethnic cease-fire groups including the NMSP, Karen Peace of Front (KPF), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) are also based in TPP and have some control over the area.
The majority of residents in TPP are ethnic people including Mon, Karen and Shan. Most of the families depend on logging and furniture trade for their survival.
The NMSP, in a bid to stop narcotics smuggling in their area of control set up the anti-drug department in 2002. The Thai border military authorities have encouraged the NMSP to take action against narcotics smuggling in keeping with the Thai government's policy of 'War on Drugs'.
After the NMSP started taking action against narcotics smuggling on the TPP border, especially in the NMSP controlled areas there has been less drug smuggling and fewer arrests in the Thai military border check point.
In the past, at least 10 smugglers were arrested annually on the Thai military border check point and it was easier to access drugs on the TPP border.
The NMSP detained the smuggler and will charge him for a jail term.
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