Traffickers Prefer Using Highway R3A From Chiang Rai to China for Moving Narcotics
CHIANG RAI – The R3A Highway which was built with hopes the route would be a boost for legitimate business and tourism, is being exploited by couriers in a now not-so-secret path of drug trafficking.
The road, running 1,861 kilometres from Chiang Rai’s Chiang Khong district in Thailand to the city of Kunming in Yunnan province in southwestern China via Laos, aims to ease travel for tourists wanting to explore foreign cultures and commerce traders seeking new opportunities in neighbouring countries.
However, the highway is inadvertently making it easier for drug trafficking gangs to smuggle their products in and out of countries near the Mekong River.
The traffickers can, in fact, transport drugs by ship along this trans-national river, but authorities found they prefer going over land because “it is more convenient and the R3A is their main route,” according to Safe Mekong Joint Operation Centre director Suchip Khotcharin. The centre unites Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China together in a drug crackdown in the upper Mekong region.
A section of the R3A Highway in Laos is considered the “weakest point”, as illegal activity is concentrated there, Mr Suchip said, adding Vientiane has no policy to set up road checkpoints.
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Traffickers Prefer Using Highway R3A From Chiang Rai to China for Moving Narcotics | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper
