BANGKOK: MEXICAN drug syndicates have begun targeting Thailand and other Asian countries to traffic methamphetamine, revealed the United States Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATFW).
Its deputy director, Earl Hampton, said Asian countries were vulnerable to trafficking of meth produced by Mexican cartels.
Citing reports from US anti-drug authorities, Hampton said the drugs manufactured in Mexico were similar to the meth produced in drug labs along the Thai-Myanmar border.
According to the Bangkok Post, both used the same precursor chemicals.
“Thailand remains a market and transit point for drug traffickers,” he said at the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii recently.
The JIATFW, whose mission is to combat drug-related organised crime in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, said Hampton was working with Thai police and agencies to stamp out use of precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs.
He warned that fentanyl, which is blamed for a surge in opioid-related deaths in America, was being trafficked into the US from abroad.
However, following the briefing by Hampton, Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau said initial checks found no evidence that Mexican cartels were smuggling drugs into Thailand.
Its chief, Chinnapat Sarasin, insisted smuggling drugs from Mexico would be uneconomical given there were existing sites for cheap production of narcotics along Thailand’s border.
‘Mexican drugs are not a worry compared with meth smuggled from neighbouring countries,’ he said, adding that this was a chronic problem.
Thai police on Wednesday announced the arrest of three suspects in two anti-drug operations. Among them was Malaysian national Magesh Muniandy, who allegedly smuggled nearly 100,000 sedative-like Nimetazepam pills into Thailand.
Muniandy was nabbed while allegedly delivering the drugs to Hatyai.
Investigators believe the drugs, which are usually sold as an ecstasy substitute, are being “trial marketed” here.
Police said they intercepted a Khon Kaen village head along with his accomplice at a petrol station in Udon Thani’s Kumphawapi district, as the two were trying to smuggle 300kg of marijuana into the country.
The suspects admitted the cannabis was for clients here and neighbouring provinces, officers said.