Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CHIANGMAI34
2008-03-04 09:16:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chiang Mai
Cable title:  

THAI-LAO BORDER CHECKPOINT GIVES GLIMPSE INTO

Tags:  PREL SNAR PREF ETRD TH LA 
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VZCZCXRO4353
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0034/01 0640916
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 040916Z MAR 08
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0690
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0746
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000034 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/4/2018
TAGS: PREL SNAR PREF ETRD TH LA
SUBJECT: THAI-LAO BORDER CHECKPOINT GIVES GLIMPSE INTO
DRUG-TRAFFICKING TRENDS

CHIANG MAI 00000034 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Mike Morrow, Consul General, CG, Chiang Mai.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000034

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/4/2018
TAGS: PREL SNAR PREF ETRD TH LA
SUBJECT: THAI-LAO BORDER CHECKPOINT GIVES GLIMPSE INTO
DRUG-TRAFFICKING TRENDS

CHIANG MAI 00000034 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Mike Morrow, Consul General, CG, Chiang Mai.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) A visit to a small Thai-Lao border checkpoint revealed
good cross-border cooperation, predictable trade patterns, and
little or no illegal migration. However, the local Thai
military commander reported that narcotics trafficking networks
in the region were increasingly shifting their transit routes
from the more heavily patrolled Thai-Burma border to the
"softer" Thai-Laos border. End Summary.

--------------
Quiet Thai-Lao Border Checkpoint
--------------


2. (U) Consul General visited the Ban Huak checkpoint on the
Thai-Lao border on February 26. This small border post links
one of northern Thailand's poorest provinces, Phayao, with
Oudomxai province in northwestern Laos. At this spot the Mekong
River is many miles inside Lao territory. At the checkpoint CG
met with Thai officials from Customs, Immigration, Border Police
Patrol, Royal Thai Army (RTA),and Interior Ministry security
forces. The following day we met with RTA 17th Infantry
Regiment Colonel Wiraphong Phantachak, who is based in Phayao.


3. (SBU) The Ban Huak checkpoint does not receive much traffic
- on average, about 50 Laotians and 30 Thais cross each day, the
border officials told us. Volume picks up on the twice-monthly
market day, when a couple hundred Laotians cross into the Thai
border town. Even greater numbers (mostly ethnic Hmong) cross
into Thailand during the Hmong New Year festivities held by
Phayao's Hmong community. Our contacts said that Laotian Hmong
in the area get along with local Lao authorities better than in
the past, because most old hardline Lao officials have left
government service by now. They reported no clashes in recent
memory on the Lao side of the border between government troops
and minority rebel groups.

--------------
Not Much Smuggling or Illegal Migration
--------------


4. (U) The goods that flow across this relatively minor border
crossing are primarily Lao handicrafts and agricultural produce
into Thailand, and Thai consumer goods, construction materials,
and fuel into Laos. No Chinese traders are active in the
region, but there is a big Chinese-goods market in the nearest
village on the Lao side of the border. The market sells cheap
consumer goods that are popular among the Laotians but do not
draw much interest from the local Thai. Our contacts reported
little or no smuggling of contraband goods at Ban Huak.


5. (SBU) Ban Huak sees little or no illegal immigration from
Laos, officials reported. They attributed this to strict
control by Lao officials over issuance of border crossing
passes. They reported no North Korean refugees, who typically
enter Thailand at Chiang Rai province, which is farther to the
north and closer to southern China.

--------------
Thai, Lao Officials Meet Regularly
--------------


6. (U) Thai and Lao province-level officials (including
military) meet monthly to discuss illegal border incursion cases
(mostly farmers pursuing straying cattle),border demarcation,
and administrative issues. Currently, the border checkpoint is
open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the Laotians have
requested extended hours of 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., mainly to
accommodate Laotians who arrive at the border late because of
poor road conditions on their side. Lower, district-level
officials meet more frequently, but not on a fixed schedule.
Recently, border officials from both sides got together for a
sports competition day.

-------------- --------------
Drug-Running Shifting From Burma Border to Lao Border
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The Thai border officials told us they had made no
narcotics seizures in recent memory. However, they were aware
of some seizures made farther inside Phayao province of
narcotics that had allegedly been smuggled across the Ban Huak
checkpoint. We spoke in greater detail on the narcotics
trafficking issue with the Phayao-based RTA 17th Infantry
Regiment's Colonel Wiraphong Phantachak on February 27. He told

CHIANG MAI 00000034 002.2 OF 002


us that, although counternarcotics was not the 17th's main role,
it was engaged in two specific anti-drug activities:

-- further north in the interior of Chiang Rai province, at Doi
Wawee in Mae Suai district, regimental personnel work with local
hill tribes to train them in professional skills (mostly
agricultural) as an alternative to opium cultivation. The
troops also engage in intelligence gathering on drug trafficking
networks that have historically been active in that area.

-- the regiment also mans a checkpoint in Phayao city on the
major highway running south from Chiang Rai province toward
Bangkok. Here the troops have on occasion made seizures of up
to 100,000 yaa baa (methamphetamine) pills at a time.


8. (C) Colonel Phantachak told us that traffickers are
increasingly bringing narcotics into Thailand from Laos, as a
countermove against Thailand's intensified drug interdiction
efforts along the Burma border. These are the same networks as
before, now using different, "softer" routes to get the drugs
(mostly produced in Burma) into Thailand. As for Phayao (whose
border with Laos is less than 25 kilometers long),drugs are
brought across on footpaths by villagers, avoiding the
province's sole road crossing and checkpoint at Ban Huak. Asked
about counternarcotics cooperation between the RTA and Lao Army,
the Colonel complained that the Lao Army could be a lot more
vigilant, but did not consider drug trafficking to be a priority
since the drugs primarily transit through Laos rather than being
consumed there.

--------------
Comment
--------------


9. (C) Generally speaking, the Ban Huak border crossing has
little volume and few problems. The frequency with which local
Thai and Lao officials meet is a good practice, but unlikely by
itself to discourage drug traffickers from eyeing this and other
Thai-Lao border areas as a soft target for their trade.


10. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassies Vientiane and
Bangkok.
MORROW