Police link general to drugs boss

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

                                        October 29, 1998 


                                


                     NARCOTICS

 Police link general
 to drugs boss

 Evidence found in corporal's quarters 

 Wassayos Ngarmkham, Wassana Nanuam and Pricha Sisatarn

 Police yesterday found crucial evidence linking a Supreme Command
 general to a drug ring run by Surachai "Bang Ron" Ngernthongfoo
 after they searched the quarters of a lance corporal attached to the
 army's 1st regiment.

 Police found purchase orders for thousands of amphetamine pills at
 L/Cpl Vitoon Klinkachorn's quarters in the regiment's 4th battalion, as
 well as several bank accounts of the non-commissioned officer
 showing transfers of large amounts of cash in and out of the accounts.

 Military and police sources said the officer had close ties with the
 general who was once attached to the 1st regiment's 4th battalion.
 L/Cpl Vitoon was not present during the search.

 The search was carried out with the permission of Gen Surayud
 Chulanont, the army chief, and with full cooperation of Col Thiradet
 Mokasamit, the regimental commander.

 A police source said: "We now have strong evidence to link him
 [Vitoon] to Bang Ron's drug ring."

 The general, a specialist at the Supreme Command and staff officer at
 the Defence Ministry's Office of Policy and Planning, had been absent
 from work in the past several days since being linked to Bang Ron's
 drug ring.

 Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit, the supreme commander, has already
 ordered a military intelligence unit to run a background check on the
 general, a former deputy chief of the Armed Forces Security Centre
 who once supervised an intelligence unit monitoring border security in
 Kanchanaburi.

 Bang Ron is believed to have taken refuge with Red Wa rebels
 operating along Kanchanaburi's border area.

 A security source yesterday said Bang Ron had used his connections
 with Burmese minority groups in the area gained with the suspected
 general's help to obtain amphetamines for sale in Thailand.

 Police yesterday declined to reveal the identify of the suspected
 general. However, it was reported that he was a Class 14 graduate of
 the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, and that he was widely
 known to be an influential figure with strong connections with
 "mafia-type people".

 Another senior army officer had also been suspected earlier. But the
 police said yesterday that the officer, a major-general who is a unit
 commander in the Fourth Army Region, had already been cleared.

 Meanwhile it was reported yesterday that a combined task force of
 Border Patrol Police troops, army soldiers and para-military rangers
 was about to begin a hunt for Bang Ron who was believed to be
 hiding somewhere in a border area of Sangklaburi district of
 Kanchanaburi.

 "We will send a go-between to talk him into surrendering first before
 taking any tougher measures," said a security official yesterday.

                                                       
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 Last Modified: Thu, Oct 29, 1998
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