Burma pivotal as amphetamine use soars – The Irrawaddy
September 14th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22072
BANGKOK – Burma’s increasing amphetamine production is contributing to the worldwide rise of synthetic drugs use, with the Mekong River now a key route for drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle, a drug-producing region in the Burma, Laos and Thailand borderlands.
Burma is the prime source for the growing use of amphetamines across southeast Asia in particular, with 133 million pills seized by police in 2010, up from 94 million the previous year and 32 million in 2008.
In February 2010, Laos authorities made a single seizure of 21.8 million pills, which was “believed to have originated from Myanmar” and was “evidently headed for Thailand”, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which adds that “the majority of the methamphetamine pills found in the country is sourced from Myanmar.” (more…)
Thai court agrees to hear accused Russian arms dealer’s appeal – Los Angeles Times
October 15th, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bout-thailand-20101015,0,2884841.story
The U.S. is seeking to extradite Victor Bout, notorious in the post-Cold War era for allegedly arming terrorist groups, militias and governments, many under U.N. arms embargo.
By Simon Roughneen, Los Angeles Times. Reporting from Bangkok, Thailand
A Thai court has agreed this week to hear an appeal by suspected arms trafficker Victor Bout, a move likely to frustrate, at least temporarily, U.S. efforts to extradite him on four terrorism-related counts.
The former Russian military officer earned international notoriety in the post-Cold War era for allegedly arming a rogues’ gallery of terrorist groups, militias and governments, many of which were under a United Nations weapons embargo.
If the court proceeds with the appeal it accepted Wednesday, Bout could remain in a Thai prison beyond the Nov. 20 U.S. extradition deadline, a date determined after an earlier court decision.
“Nobody is sure how long this could take,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, said Thursday. (more…)
Thailand faces difficult choice on alleged arms smuggler – Los Angeles Times
October 7th, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bout-extradition-20101007,0,2639999.story
The U.S. wants Russian Victor Bout extradited to answer terrorism charges. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will make a decision and risk offending Washington or Moscow.
Reporting from Bangkok, Thailand, and New Delhi
The last chance for an alleged arms smuggler dubbed the “Merchant of Death” to avoid extradition from Thailand to the United States on terrorism charges appears to lie with Thailand’s prime minister, who faces a tough decision: offend the United States or offend Russia.
The difficult diplomatic choice for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva follows a ruling Tuesday by a Thai court clearing a legal obstacle that had barred the extradition. Victor Bout, a former Russian air force officer, is suspected of supplying weapons to various armies and terrorist groups in the Middle East, South America and Africa.
Moscow says Bout is a “normal businessman” and wants him returned, but Washington sees him as a dangerous arms proliferator.
Anthony Davis, an analyst with Jane’s Defense Weekly, said the Thai government is going to have to make someone angry. “My guess is it will be the Russians.” (more…)
Drug traffickers standing for election – The Irrawaddy
September 29th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19582
Shan and Kachin researchers say that Burma’s ruling junta are backing candidates for the Nov. 7 election who are prominent in the drug trade along Burma’s borders with Thailand and China.
Myint Lwin and Kyaw Myint were cited today at a Bangkok press conference as well-known Shan State-based narcotics bosses who will stand for the junta’s proxy party—the Union Solidarity and Development Party—in the upcoming polls. Zah Kung Ting Ying, a former New Democratic Army-Kachin leader, will run for election as an independent, according to Kachin journalist Lahpai Nawdin.
“Most of the poppy-growing areas in Shan State are under the control of militia groups backed by the Tatmadaw [Burmese army],” said Shan researcher and journalist Kheunsai Jaiyen. (more…)
Bangkok Dangerous: US trumps Russia over ‘Merchant of Death’
August 20th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19262
BANGKOK – After months of diplomatic horse-trading and pressure, Thailand’s appeal court today ruled that Viktor Bout is to be extradited to the U.S. to face terrorism charges. He faces life in prison if convicted, with charges including conspiracy to kill US officers or employees and conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile.
Bout maintains that allegations against him are politically-motivated and that he was running a legitimate air cargo business. Mr Bout was labelled a ‘Merchant of Death’ by British Government minister Peter Hain, back in 2000 after years of running his alleged arms trade business with warlords and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
United Nations agencies and several Western governments have reported numerous times that Bout sent arms to dictators and warlords in Africa and Afghanistan, breaking several UN arms embargoes in the process.
In a scene akin to something out of a John le Carré novel, Bout was snared in a 2008 sting operation mounted by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operatives posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) arms dealers, operating alongside the Thai authorities.
In 2009 a Thai court rejected a U.S. request for Bout’s extradition on the grounds that the FARC, a Colombian militia the U.S. has formally labeled a terrorist organization and whose dealings with Bout were the focus of a 2008 U.S. indictment against him, was not a terror group under Thai law.
North Korean Weapons Mystery: Is Burma the Missing Link?
December 16th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17410
The North Korean arms cargo interdicted in Bangkok seems unlikely to be bound for Burma, despite ties between
Thai military unloads weapons from North Korean cargo plane in Bangkok
Pyongyang and the Naypyidaw military junta. Burmese junta strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe visited Sri Lanka in November, reciprocating a visit made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this year.
The final destination of the cache remains unclear. The crew claim that the airplane was to land in Sri Lanka to refuel, eventually to conclude its journey in the Ukraine, apparently after the cargo had been dropped off elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials denied any knowledge that the embargo-breaking flight was going to land in that country.
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the plane was going to “a destination in the Middle East” to unload the weapons. Earlier this year, authorities in the United Arab Emirates seized 10 containers of North Korean arms on board a Bahamian-flagged ship. Like the Ilyushin-76 flight cargo, the manifest was listed as “oil drilling equipment.” The consignment was supposedly destined for Iran.
Other speculation surrounds a possible African destination. Sudan is also under a UN arms embargo, but acquires weapons from China and Russia among others, and has become increasingly close to states such as Iran and Burma in recent years. The latter two are thought to be key buyers in North Korea’s US $1bn per annum illicit arms bazaar, prompting speculation that a bevy of human rights violators are collaborating in an underground weapons trade.
Sudan’s deputy foreign minister visited Burma in October 2009 to discuss “beneficial cooperation on investment and energy sectors,” according to The New Light of Myanmar, a junta-backed publication based in Rangoon. Both Sudan and Burma are important sources of energy supply to China, which has fostered these links while Western competitors remain largely absent, due to international sanctions on both Khartoum and Naypyidaw. Sudan, like Burma, will stage controversial elections next year, amid speculation that oil-rich southern Sudan will later secede, a move that Khartoum is likely to resist with military force. (more…)
Burma’s precarious peace – RTÉ World Report
October 11th, 2009
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1011/worldreport.html
Presented by Colm Ó Mongáin
Saints and sinners
Brian O’Connell, London Editor, reports that Catholics turning out to to see St Thérèse de Lisieux have been on the receiving end of some surprising invective
Burma’s precarious peace
Simon Roughneen reports that the military junta in Burma is risking alienating its Chinese supporters. (more…)
Cocaine-fuelled hi-society built on failing states – The Irish Catholic
December 6th, 2007
Did an Irish cabinet minister take cocaine? And if so, who? Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan says the claim is baseless. And now, under Government duress, state broadcaster RTÉ is conducting an internal inquiry into ‘High Society’, the book-derived documentary that ran the allegations.
Even if the substance abuse story has no substance, two separate events last week tell us something more troubling about Ireland’s fascination with cocaine – gossipy titillation aside.
On November 21 two British teenagers were arrested in Ghana, attempting to board a flight to London with around US$600,000 worth of cocaine in laptop bags. If convicted, the two sixteen-year-old girls face three years in an Accra juvenile detention centre.
A day later, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published its annual report, charting a continent-spanning rise in cocaine abuse and record seizures. According to the EU centre report, Ireland now ranks fifth in the Euro cocaine league.
Ireland’s growing fondness for cocaine feeds not only addiction at home, but the emergence of narco-states in the world’s poorest regions. Latin American drug cartels have been hampered by successful counter-narcotics operations along old transit routes in the Caribbean and Central America. For example, the UK has worked closely with the Ghanaian police on anti-drug operations, on the back of a successful campaign targeting former UK colonies in the Caribbean
The cocaine trade is demand-drive, so traffickers remain undeterred by growing interdiction, seeking new routes and means to access the growing European market. (more…)
Two arrested for McCartney murder -ISN
June 2nd, 2005
DERRY – The British police arrested two men on Wednesday in connection with the January murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast.
A 49-year-old man was detained in Belfast. The other, aged 36, was arrested in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, follow-up searches have been taking place in the Markets area of Belfast, close to where the killing took place.
McCartney was murdered on 31 January outside a pub near the Catholic-nationalist Short Strand enclave in East Belfast.
The murder was blamed on members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), three of whom were expelled after the paramilitary group conducted an internal investigation. (more…)
Seven held in IRA laundering probe – ISN
February 18th, 2005
DERRY – Police in the Irish Republic have arrested seven people as part of an investigation into Irish Republican Army (IRA) money-laundering.
Euro and sterling notes worth a total of €3.6 million were seized in Dublin and Cork, and further police raids were ongoing areas in the midlands and east of the country. One single raid on Thursday morning recovered £2 million (nearly €2.9 million) from a house in rural Cork. Senior detectives from Northern Ireland’s police were in Dublin on Friday for a special security summit with their counterparts in the Republic.
Police believe that some or all of the cash was part of the €38 million taken in the Northern Bank robbery committed in Belfast in late December. It has been confirmed that Northern Bank notes make up some of the cash seized. The robbery was generally attributed to the IRA, and one of those arrested in Cork was a Sinn Féin candidate in the Irish general election in 2002. (more…)
