*EPF305 05/29/2002
Fact Sheet: State Dept. Outlines Counternarcotics Goals, Programs in Thailand
(International narcotics/law enforcement bureau May 23 fact sheet) (611)

The Department of State's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs issued a fact sheet May 23 concerning the U.S. government's counternarcotics goals and programs with respect to the problem of illegal narcotics in Thailand.

Following is the text of the State Department fact sheet:

(begin fact sheet)

FACT SHEET
Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Washington, DC
May 23, 2002
Country Program: Thailand

Problem

Thailand is part of the Golden Triangle, the source of a large portion of the heroin available for export to the United States. Decades of assistance, economic development and annual eradication campaigns have greatly reduced Thai opium production. Heroin still transits Thailand for international markets including the United States, and Thailand remains an important base of operations for the brokers and financiers involved in international heroin trafficking and other criminal activities. Thailand has a domestic problem of methamphetamine addiction, which the Thai Government has described as a national crisis.

U.S. Counternarcotics Goals

-- Target traffickers and their organizations and obtain extradition through cooperative investigations;

-- Implement new money laundering legislation and develop other legal enforcement rules, such as conspiracy, plea bargain, and broader evidentiary laws;

-- Continue to eliminate poppy cultivation through eradication and development of viable economic alternatives for farmers;

-- Expand and improve drug abuse awareness and demand reduction activities, and improve drug control institutions through interagency coordination and institutional development; and

-- Expand Thailand's role as a regional leader in drug control programs.

U.S. Programs

Thailand and the United States continue to work closely on counternarcotics issues. The Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) currently funds four bilateral project agreements that continue in force.

Narcotics law enforcement projects are designed to improve the ability of narcotics law enforcement agencies to respond to the threat posed by powerful trafficking organizations. This agreement provides commodity and training support for the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), the Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau (PNSB), and other Thai law enforcement organizations and supports efforts aimed at improving institutions and judicial cooperation.

Narcotics crop eradication funding is provided to the Royal Thai Army Third Region (3RTA), the ONCB, the Border Patrol Police (BPP), and provincial police to assist the Royal Thai Government in surveying, locating, and eradicating the illicit opium poppy crop in northern Thailand.

Demand reduction projects are designed to assist Thai authorities in improving and expanding demand reduction programs, to increase private sector and NGO involvement in the national drug abuse awareness effort, and to target specific drug abuse problem areas.

Regional project funding is directed at supporting Thailand's efforts at coordination, outreach, and training for countries in the region. The joint U.S.-Thai International Law Enforcement Academy, which opened in 1999 in Bangkok, is an educational center where law enforcement officers from numerous Asian countries receive training to combat narcotics trafficking and related criminal activities. A major objective of the academy is to foster regional cooperation so that countries can work together to defeat transnational crime.


(end fact sheet)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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