New Delhi - The United States on Thursday froze the assets of 26 individuals and 17 companies tied to drug traffickers in Burma, and prohibited US citizens from dealing with them.
The targeted individuals and companies are associates of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an armed ethnic group, and a senior commander of the group, Wei Hseuh Keng, the US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the Treasury Department named Wei Hseuh Keng and the UWSA as "Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers" under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act).
Pao Yu Hsiang, Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng are other key individuals designated by the Treasury. Pao Yu Hsiang, who was indicated in 2005 under the Kingpin Act along with Wei Hseuh Keng, is commander-in-chief of the UWSA.
OFAC Deputy Director Barbara C. Hammerle said, "The United Wa State Army is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia and is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine."
However, a UWSA official said his group had long halted the cultivation of poppy for opium production and had official rules prohibiting drug production.
"Since 2005, we have officially declared a ban on the cultivation of poppy opium and the production of drugs," the official, who wished not to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the press, told Mizzima by telephone.
The official, however, admits that the group had earlier dealt in drug production, ranging from the cultivation of poppy for opium to the production of methamphetamines in clandestine factories across the Wa region under the supervision of Wa officials.
However, he added that his group was not the only group that had a history of dealing in drug production and trafficking, saying, "Many groups including even individual officers from the Burmese Army have been related to drug trafficking."
While he refused to comment on the UWSA's commander-in-chief Pao Yu Hsiang and other senior commanders', including Wei Hseuh Keng's, involvement in the drug trade, the official said UWSA as a group has ceased involvement in the cultivation of poppy for opium.
In the executive summary of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime's 2008 World Drug report, the Wa region is said to be opium poppy free, though cultivation in the east and south of Shan state is said to have significantly increased.
The report also said cultivation of poppy opium has significantly been replaced with the production of pills including methamphetamines and amphetamines in clandestine factories.
Khyn Sai, an editor of the Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News, which has released reports on drug production in Burma's eastern Shan state, earlier told Mizzima that the trend of drug production has shifted significantly from the cultivation of poppy opium plants to the production of more sophisticated drugs in clandestine factories.
"It would be difficult to say whose group is clean in the drug trade, because most groups have at one time or another been involved and have depended on income from drugs," the UWSA official said, apparently referring to other armed ethnic groups as well as to the military junta.
Of the Treasury's designation of the group and their leaders, the official said, "I think it is bias to blame only us, because for the production of drugs, raw materials come from neighboring countries including China and Thailand."
OFAC's Barbara C. Hammerle in her statement said, "Today OFAC is targeting the Wa's lieutenants and the financial holdings of this massive drug trafficking organization. We call on other nations to do the same."
In January 2005, a court in the Eastern District of New York indicted Wei Hseuh Keng along with his brothers - Wei Hsueh Lung and Wei Hsueh Ying, also designated today – for narcotics trafficking.
The U.S. Department of State has announced a reward of up to US$ two million for information leading to the arrest of Wei Hsueh Kang.
Thursday's designation also includes many companies of the Hong Pang business conglomerate, and its manager Shih Kuo Neng, who along with Ho chung Ting, in May 2005, were also indicted by a New York court.
The Treasury said, "The designation action freezes any assets the 43 designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities."
The treasury said corporations violating the Kingpin Act would be fined up to 10 million dollars, while individual corporation officers will be fined five million dollars and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.
Other individuals involved in any transactions could face up to ten years imprisonment as well as a fine, according to the Treasury.
