THAILAND 19.1 Organised Crime in Thailand Illicit Drugs and Trafficking

CHAPTER NINETEEN

THAILAND

19.1 Organised Crime in Thailand

Illicit Drugs and trafficking in persons, especially women and children, are historically Thailand’s most notorious organised crime problems. In the late 1900s, Thailand was a key producer of illicit opium, especially the border region to Myanmar, Lao, and China, known as the Golden Triangle. Gradually, the country has transformed from a drug producing and transit country, to a major consumer of illicit drugs, though the levels of drug trafficking through Thailand remain high in comparison. Radical measures adopted by the government of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to suppress the illicit drug trade have had considerable success in dismantling drug cartels, but came at the expense of thousands of lives and raised serious concerns over human rights infringements. The Jao Pho groups and the United Wa State Army have been iden- tified as two of the most influential and widespread criminal organisations in Thailand. The Jao Pho is made up mostly by members of ethnic Chinese background who also operate many legitimate busi- nesses and have close associations with (corrupt) government officials, law enforcement agencies, and local and national legislatures.919 The United Wa State Army (also referred to as the ‘Red Wa’) is based in the Burmese part of the Golden Triangle and is said to be in control of much of the methamphetamine and heroin production in this part of Myanmar and in trafficking these drugs across the border for sale in Thailand.920

919 Finckenauer & Ko-Lin Chin, Asian Transnational Organized Crime, 10. 920 Ibid., at 10. 258 chapter nineteen

19.2 Organised Crime Offences

Thailand’s criminal law currently contains no specific provision relating to organised crime. ThePenal Code of 1956—which derives prin- cipally from French criminal law—contains general provisions relating to ‘instigation of a criminal offence’ (s 84) and assisting and facilitat- ing criminal offences (s 86). There are, however, no provisions relating to conspiracy or to participation in or association with criminal organisations. Thailand signed theConvention against Transnational Organised Crime at the opening ceremony in Palermo, Italy but has yet to implement it into domestic law.921 At the time of the inception of the Palermo Convention, the Thai Government also set up an enhanced anti-organised crime policy. On November 7, 2000 the Thai Cabinet under Prime Minister Sinawatra launched a new national security policy for prevention and correction of the problem of organised crime [. . .] to serve as a guideline for all government agencies concerned, in order to facilitate coordination and cooperation for sys- tematic prevention, suppression, and correction of this problem.922 The Office of the National Security Council was assigned the role of lead agency in this approach. Subsequent to this new policy, a num- ber of laws were passed in order to increase law enforcement powers, improve extradition and mutual legal assistances in criminal matters, and also create greater awareness in the community and private sector about organised crime.923 Following Thailand’s signature of the Palermo Convention, the Office of the Attorney-General conducted a comparative study on the compatibility of the Convention with Thai laws. This study concluded that: Thailand should enact new laws to be more efficient in the prevention and suppression of organised crime. Current laws are not comprehen- sive enough to criminalise organised crime efficiently, especially when there is no clear or well-formulated definition of ‘organised crime’ and the ‘transnational’ nature of organised crime syndicates. General legal

921 UNODC, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (status as on 26 Sep 2008). 922 Thailand,Thailand Country Report(to the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, April 18–25, 2005) (2005) 4. 923 Ibid., at 4–59.