Thais to Probe Official’s Links to U.S. Drug Ring

The Thai government is sending a high-ranking team of officials to the United States to investigate American allegations that a top Thai police officer has links to a Los Angeles-based drug ring, it was announced here.

Gen. Vasit Dejkunchorn, deputy chief of Thailand’s police, said Thursday that he and his investigators will spend about a month investigating charges against Veth Petchborom, a police major general who was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in July.

Veth, who has been suspended from his duties without pay pending the outcome of the investigation, is believed to be the highest-ranking Thai official to have been indicted in a U.S. drug case. At the time of his suspension, he was the assistant police inspector general.

The indictment, issued by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 13, alleges that Veth was the “controlling force” in the shipment of 11 pounds of heroin that was seized at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in November, 1984, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration statement. Two Thai nationals, including a second lieutenant in the Thai air force, were arrested at the time.

According to the statement, Veth was accused of helping to arrange shipments, investing personally and using his influence to “facilitate the free passage of narcotics shipments” through Bangkok airport. The drug cartel was said to have arranged 15 earlier shipments.

The alleged mastermind of the drug ring, Suvit Taechaphanarat, was arrested last year, pleaded guilty to three narcotics charges and was sentenced July 21 by a federal judge in Los Angeles to 30 years in prison. A total of 22 people have been arrested.

An arrest warrant for Veth was issued in Brooklyn, but Vasit said in a telephone interview that U.S. authorities had made no request to the Thais to hand him over for trial.

Although there is a judicial treaty between the two countries, it does not provide for the extradition of Thai nationals to the United States.

Vasit said he wants to question Suvit and others arrested in the case, saying more than one witness had made allegations against Veth, one of Thailand’s highest-ranking police officers.

The case is considered significant because Thailand has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye to the drug trade from the so-called Golden Triangle opium-producing area of Thailand, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Laos.

Vasit said Veth was not arrested and emphasized that no criminal charges have been brought against him in Thailand.