Thailand's Daily Crime Pill #10: Crime Knows No Border
But for some reason, the crooked love Thailand.
Dear expats and readers,
As I noted in Crime Pill #8, there’s a hoard of treasure in the WikiLeaks cables as it relates to Thailand and crime.
I’ve just started sorting through it all, and there’s a lot.
But no matter — it’s a calming process for me. Reminds me of back in the day when I’d trade greenbacks for coinage at the bank, and sort through the massive numismatic piles of nickel, zinc, and copper looking for anything stamped pre-1965.
That’s the year the U.S. Mint switched from silver coinage to the junk metal. It’d take hours to find a single silver nickel, dime, or quarter, but over the years I built up a handsome pile.
As for the WikiLeaks cables, I found this little nugget just yesterday: LAW ENFORCEMENT COOPERATION BETWEEN THAILAND AND THE UNITED STATES RUNS DEEP from 2009.
It wastes no time and starts with this:
Summary: As one of five U.S. treaty allies in Asia, and the only such on the mainland of SE Asia, straddling a major force projection air/sea corridor, and as one of Asia's democracies, Thailand remains crucial to U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. For decades law enforcement (LE) cooperation has been a core component of a broad and deep relationship which has served both countries, interests. From an initial primary focus on counter-narcotics efforts, chiefly in combating heroin trafficking from the Golden Triangle and promoting alternative development to opium cultivation within Thailand, the LE relationship has expanded greatly, defending U.S. interests and persons.
Even those with shallow reading of the region’s history know that metric shit-tons of heroin and opium used to move through the Golden Triangle and get shipped out to more lucrative Western markets.
If you’ve ever taken a drive through the north, you’ve probably seen signs for Royal Project villages and farms. Where coffee, strawberries, and tea grow now is where mountain poppy once bloomed.
I’ve been told that fields of opium poppy once blanketed the far side of Doi Suthep, the famous mountain that looms over Chiang Mai city — and not that long ago.
The cable continues with this counter-narcotics line:
The U.S. started investing in Thai law enforcement agencies in the 1950s as part of the effort to contain communism. The Border Patrol Police, Special Branch Police, and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), among other units, were established with U.S. funding to serve as regional partners. For four decades starting in 1963, when DEA's predecessor organization began operations in Thailand, the main thrust of USG-RTG LE cooperation was in counter- narcotics. It focused chiefly on fighting the Golden Triangle heroin trade both through heroin interdiction and opium eradication, with attendant crop substitution efforts. DEA now maintains offices in several parts of the country, enjoying remarkable freedom of action in-country and high levels of cooperation (including the right to carry weapons and freely conduct investigations, with the RTP making the final arrests). This special relationship has benefited American LE greatly, and the Thai clearly feel that they have had the benefit of a large, well-trained and effective organization as a partner.
It’s clear that the foundation of several divisions of the Royal Thai Police — the Border Patrol Police, Special Branch Police, and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board — were established with U.S. funding and were critical in the region’s counter-narcotics efforts.
Even to this day, the DEA operates seamlessly in a nation known for flexing an iron-fist — no matter how rusty — in the management of its internal affairs.
I’ve been told on good authority from people that were there, that in the 1960’s the DEA, Thai army, and police worked missions together to eradicate the poppy, especially from the north and border regions.
But counter-narcotics isn’t the only of Uncle Sam’s concerns.
The cable goes on:
The leading areas of current LE cooperation are: extradition and mutual legal assistance (Thailand s the third largest worldwide source of wanted ciminals (sic) extradited to the US, with pedophiles a frequent target); counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, trafficking in persons (TIP), intellectual property (IP) protection, money-laundering, cyber- and other white-collar crime, and refugee issues.
I reckon that Thailand’s still ranked high as a source for extraditing wanted criminals — not just to the U.S., but for other sovereign nations, too.
Later on the cable puts for the number of 135 persons that have been extradited back to the U.S. from Thailand in the previous 30 years.
One character that the cable mentions is Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer nicknamed the Merchant of Death.
Bout was arrested by Thai police on terrorism charges in March 2008. The Royal Thai Police worked with American investigators on the case.
Extradition back to the States stalled in the Thai courts. The Bangkok Criminal Court rules in the Merchant of Death’s favor in August 2009, which kept him warm and free in Thailand.
The matter was of top priority to Hillary Clinton’s State Department, and Uncle Sam appealed the Bangkok court’s decision. The case moved to a higher court in Thailand, which ruled that the United States could be extradited.
Russia protested — claiming the decision was political.
But the extradition moved forward, and Bout was shipped off to the U.S. in November 2010.
After a year and a half of court cases, the Merchant of Death was sentenced to serve 25 years in a federal penitentiary.
He serves his time at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, which is where the Teflon Don John Gotti sat for some years, too.
The cable pulls no punches when it highlights problems that need to be addressed in law enforcement and courts in Thailand:
Thailand's borders are long and extremely porous and the country is therefore vulnerable to international criminal elements of all kinds, many of them equipped with tools and skills the country's LE agencies do not yet have. The courts lack most of the accoutrements of a modern justice system and the police, prosecutors, and judiciary do not interact effectively. Instead they represent jealous fiefdoms, and the whole system relies upon confessions rather than adjudicated evidence.
One of the central problems I face when covering Thai crime is found in that last sentence.
A confession, some finger pointing at the crime scene, and off to their cage the suspect goes.
I’m a sucker for a good crime story, and the tabloid-style press in Thailand delivers consistently.
But there’s so little follow up to cases, especially ones that confront corruption. They’re often brushed under the rug and the public is none the wiser of the outcomes.
I do keep a spreadsheet with cases of interest that I follow, and I set up Google Alerts for names and keywords to track them. I highly recommend the tool, which you can use in conjunction with an RSS reader to get updates on topics of interest for yourself.
In tomorrow’s Crime Pill, I’ll share a few crime stories that I recently found by using Google Alerts. And perhaps another cable or two.
Other things I’m reading…
Crime Wave Press, an English-language imprint based in Hong Kong, is ceasing operations after 12 years in the business. Tom Vater, who headed up Crime Wave, tells me he's signed a publishing deal for a collection of crime fiction novellas called Kolkata Noir. It should be out later this year — and I look forward to it.
Uncle Sam does more than just hunt down narcos in Thailand. They’ve also contributed to helping clear up northern Thailand’s abysmal air. Look, the situation needs all the help it can get — so any news is good news on this front. I might address the criminal nature of burning in the north at some point in a future dispatch.
Will a drafted NGO law devastate civil society in Thailand? I have my doubts, as it’s a big claim — but this article argues that it will. Well-written and informative nonetheless.
I’m launching another true crime brand soon. It will cover business related true crime — everything from money laundering, fraud, murder, cybercrime, and more. More details in future dispatches, keep an eye out.
That’s all for today…
Until tomorrow’s Crime Pill, stay safe out there everybody.
- True Crime Thailand
P.S.
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