Thailand hosts Mekong Basin meeting on anti-narcotics

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND, April 30 (TNA) - Thailand hosts a ministerial meeting of four countries in the Mekong River Basin on joint narcotic suppression along the Mekong River, set from April 29-30. The Ministerial Meeting on the Joint Cooperation in “Safe Mekong Project Phase 2 (Extension)” among China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand is organized in Chiang Mai Province in the Thai North. Present at the two-day meeting include Deputy Secretary-General of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission An Guojun, Chair of the Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision Kou Chansina, Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Kyaw Zan Myint and Thai Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya. The regional meeting discussed a plan to stop traffickers and smuggling of drug precursors, chemicals and narcotics across the Mekong River. The Thai justice minister then told journalists that the four participating countries have agreed to expand their joint anti-narcotic efforts, especially those to destroy narcotic production bases in the Golden Triangle area. Under the agreed joint efforts, which began from January 12, 2015, the Thai minister said, Thailand has set up the Safe Mekong Coordination Center in Chiang Mai and each country deployed two officers at the facility. According to the Thai minister, 3,398 suspects were arrested and 25.8 million speed pills, 52.54 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine or “ice”, 1,556.97 kilograms of heroin and a large amount of precursors were seized during the first two months of joint efforts. The minister noted that the past success has prompted the four countries to extend their joint efforts from May 11 to September 11, 2015, to block drug trafficking along the Mekong River. (TNA)