Drug offenders to be kept in restricted jail zones
While policy-makers consider whether to set up a special facility - including a jail on an island - to prevent convicted drug dealers organising deals from behind bars, the Corrections Department chief said tomorrow's meeting of prison directors would seek solutions to the problem. And he plans to tell them to keep drug suspects in a separate zone from others.
Corrections Department chief Suchat Wong-anantachai said yesterday the idea of special prison, if approved, would take a while to materialise, but the department could separate drug convicts from others now.
For example, Bang Kwang Prison's zone 2 could be reserved for drug convicts serving life sentences. This would stop inmates from recruiting network members and the new zone would have tough rules including stricter visits under security cameras, he said.
Deputy Premier Chalerm Yoobamrung, filling in for the PM's TV programme yesterday, said the special prison zones would be reserved for drug convicts and manned by officials who were not corrupt. One could possibly be implemented first at Nakhon Ratchasima's Si Khiu Prison.
Chalerm said the government aimed to cut drug trafficking in one year. They would focus on reducing sources and demand for drugs, by seriously cracking down on dealers, intercepting narcotic ingredients, punishing any officials involved, and asking night entertainment venues not to allow drug activities.
He urged police to erect a barbed-wire fences along northern borders including Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, as 87 per cent of illicit drugs were smuggled through eight border provinces particularly Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai.
Chalerm also warned dealers to quit, saying they could be victims of "silent killings" by fellow dealers, but not by police.
He later spoke to anti-drug police at Kalasin and told the governor to reinstate the province's effective crackdown measures from 2002, as he wanted Kalasin to be the anti-drugs model.
Telling officials to take legal action against dealers without fear of "influential" figures, he said whatever happened he would be responsible. The government had no policy to kill any suspect, he said, but the problem of killings came from drug-dealing networks.
Another speaker on the show, national police chief Gen Priewpan Damapong, said police wouldn't violate drug suspects' rights when they were arrested, but if suspects fought back, police had to defend themselves.
The Narcotics Control Board chief Adul Saengsingkaew said they would implement an anti-drug campaign in 60,000 villages this year, while the Public Health Ministry rehabilitate 400,000 addicts and the Education Ministry would undertake anti-drugs activities in schools.
Meanwhile, Bang Kwang Prison chief Wisanu Prajongkit said the search yesterday of drug inmate Peerayuth Phatsakol -accused by another suspect, Nipon Kanchat, of doing deals from prison - found nothing illegal. Guards would prevent him from contacting Nipon and other suspects in the case.
Wisanu said he would ask permission for Corrections officials to carry a gun, after a Bang Kwang official's home was shot at in Nonthaburi on Tuesday night.
In a related matter, police brought Major Piyanat Jatejamras, an officer at Army Region 3's Engineering Battalion, accused of involvement in drug trafficking, to the Criminal Court to get approval for him to be detained for 12 days. They told the court Piyanat should not get bail as he may flee. The major was accused of being a drug courier by Nipon, who was arrested last week along with 3.8 million ya ba tablets and 71 kg of crystal meth at a house in Pathum Thani.
Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and Drug Suppression Police yesterday arrested 11 Chinese Haw people in Bangkok accused of being in a drug gang along with 24 kg of crystal meth (or 'ice') and 400,000 ya ba tablets worth about Bt200 million. DSI chief Tharit Pengdit told a press conference that six suspects were arrested with 24 kg of 'ice' in a sting operation at Tesco Lotus Mall on Ram Intra Road. That led to the search of a restaurant in Soi Ramkhamhaeng 24/3, where the 400,000 ya ba tablets were found, and five other suspects arrested.
The Nation
