Drug lord in Beijing on murder charges
By Yang Jian |
May 11, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A MYANMAR drug trafficking kingpin suspected of masterminding the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River last October has been handed over to police in Beijing to face murder charges.
Naw Kham, head of an armed drugs gang, arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport yesterday afternoon on a plane from Laos that had been chartered by Chinese authorities, an official with China's Ministry of Public Security said.
Naw Kham was arrested on April 25 in Laos in a joint operation involving Chinese and Laotian police.
"Naw Kham and a small number of Thai army men planned and conducted the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on two cargo ships on October 5, according to a joint police investigation of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand," Liu Yuejin, director of the ministry's Narcotics Control Bureau, said yesterday.
Liu said police forces in the four countries had been working together to fight transnational crime and maintain safety and stability along the Mekong River, a major trade route and a dangerous waterway where drug dealing and weapons smuggling is rampant.
The Chinese sailors were killed when their boats, the Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, were hijacked by gang members to move drugs.
Border troops captured the two ships later the same day and seized some 951,000 methamphetamine pills after a gunfight with the traffickers.
Thai army officials said the Naw Kham gang demands protection money from ships it hijacks and kills crew members who refuse to cooperate.
Naw Kham's organization, with more than 100 members, is a major force in the "Golden Triangle," an opium-producing area which overlaps the mountains of Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
The members are armed with AK assault rifles, M16 rifles, bazookas and machine guns.
They are thought to have been engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, looting and other crimes for many years.
The gang first hit the headlines in February 2008 when a Chinese patrol boat was attacked and three Chinese police officers were injured.
In April 2011, the group released 13 Chinese it had kidnapped after an US$8.3 million ransom was paid.
Naw Kham, head of an armed drugs gang, arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport yesterday afternoon on a plane from Laos that had been chartered by Chinese authorities, an official with China's Ministry of Public Security said.
Naw Kham was arrested on April 25 in Laos in a joint operation involving Chinese and Laotian police.
"Naw Kham and a small number of Thai army men planned and conducted the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on two cargo ships on October 5, according to a joint police investigation of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand," Liu Yuejin, director of the ministry's Narcotics Control Bureau, said yesterday.
Liu said police forces in the four countries had been working together to fight transnational crime and maintain safety and stability along the Mekong River, a major trade route and a dangerous waterway where drug dealing and weapons smuggling is rampant.
The Chinese sailors were killed when their boats, the Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, were hijacked by gang members to move drugs.
Border troops captured the two ships later the same day and seized some 951,000 methamphetamine pills after a gunfight with the traffickers.
Thai army officials said the Naw Kham gang demands protection money from ships it hijacks and kills crew members who refuse to cooperate.
Naw Kham's organization, with more than 100 members, is a major force in the "Golden Triangle," an opium-producing area which overlaps the mountains of Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
The members are armed with AK assault rifles, M16 rifles, bazookas and machine guns.
They are thought to have been engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, looting and other crimes for many years.
The gang first hit the headlines in February 2008 when a Chinese patrol boat was attacked and three Chinese police officers were injured.
In April 2011, the group released 13 Chinese it had kidnapped after an US$8.3 million ransom was paid.
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