Thai Drug Business Harms Legal Trade, Importer Contends

Although the drug business is nothing new to Southeast Asia, the region’s economic boom has largely overshadowed it. But now Thailand’s prominent role as a drug transshipment point could be adversely affecting the country’s legitimate exports, according to an Anaheim-based importer.

Palle S. Bistrup, president of Importiques, a small importer of handicrafts and interior design accessories, took the unusual step recently of complaining in a letter to the Bangkok Post that the drug trade had forced him to drop Thailand as a source of imports.

In a subsequent telephone interview with The Times, Bistrup said every container of imported goods that he received from Thailand was taken by the U.S. Customs contraband examination team, unpacked and so thoroughly searched that 20% to 25% of each shipment was damaged.

“That’s a substantial loss for little guys like me,” Bistrup said. “I could name a long string of people on this side of the ocean who are just furious about the situation.”

Although he acknowledged that the main problem was rough handling by the U.S. Customs, he said he could not blame the authorities for trying to stem the flow of narcotics into the country. He said the responsibility lies with the Thai authorities to halt the drug trade.

In previous years, Bistrup said, he received as much as 80% of his inventory from Thailand. He has switched to Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore, whose shipments to the United States are not subjected to the same scrutiny.

The United States imported $4.4 billion in goods from Thailand in 1989, the last year for which statistics are available. The goods range from Banana Republic clothes to computer disk drives.

Narcotics officials have said that the huge flow of trade between Thailand and the United States created numerous opportunities for drug smugglers to ship refined heroin into the United States. Most of the heroin is produced in neighboring Burma, then shipped through Thailand.

In a statement issued last week, the White House said increased planting of opium in neighboring countries “has greatly increased the flow of narcotics through Thailand. Thai seizures and arrests of major traffickers have not kept pace.”

The White House statement also noted that the Bush Administration had complained to Thailand’s former civilian government, which was overthrown in a bloodless military coup Feb. 23, about “recurring allegations that some politicians and Thai officials have been involved in or abetted narcotics trafficking.”

Thai officials responded angrily to the charges, with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Pow Sarasin telling reporters that he did not need to be told by the United States how to suppress the drug trade. “Thailand is not the United States,” he said.

But to Anaheim’s Bistrup, Thailand is simply not making the effort to halt the drug trade.

“I know a large number of businessmen who have said it isn’t worth the hassle of dealing with Thailand,” he said. “They say, ‘Let’s just stay out of it.’ ”