Thai authority:Laos Has Not Confirmed Arrest Of Drug Trafficker

BANGKOK, April 28 (TNA) - Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said Saturday that recent reports on the arrest of a regionally-wanted drug trafficker identified as No-kham, an ethnic Shan drug kingpin, in Laos has not yet officially confirmed by Vientiane. ONCB Deputy Secretary-General Sukhum Opasnipat told reporters he, however, believed that Lao authorities would take immediate legal action against the suspect, who is reportedly an aide of a world late notorious "Opium Warlord", Khun Sa, if the reports were true, acknowledging that China, Myanmar and Thailand also want to take legal actions against the Shan drug kingpin. According to the ONCB deputy chief, No-kham is also facing several piracy and murdering charges in neighbouring Myanmar and one drug trafficking case in Thailand. The ONCB assessed that several subordinates of No-kham would surrender themselves to authorities if the drug kingpin was really apprehended by Lao authorities. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubumrung said on Friday that the Lao authorities have arrested No-kham, who is also suspected to have involved in the killing of 13 Chinese shipping crewmen in the Mekong River in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province. Meanwhile, Surapon Kaewparadai, new chief of Nakhon Si Thammarat Central Prison, in the Thai South, vowed to take stern action against prison officials who side with inmates in using the prison for drug trafficking. Surapon will take his new office on April 30, replacing Narong Yongnarongdejkul, who was immediately transferred after officials made a predawn search at the prison on April 22, seizing about 300 cell phones, including iPhones, computer tablets, 1,700 methamphetamine pills and one kilogram of crystal methamphetamine or ice, as well as many gambling tools and weapons. (TNA)