Khun Sa crony

Khun Sa crony's assets seized 

Drugs

A gesture to Burma to take action

Thai authorities raided houses owned by Lt-Col Yishay a.k.a Chaiwat Pornsakulpaisarn, a former lieutenant of warlord Khun Sa, in Chiangmai and Chiangrai and declared them under legal possession on Sunday, 28 December. 

The assets in 18 locations, 7 in Chiangmai and 11 in Chiangrai, amount to over 20 million baht ($ 5 million). 

Yishay, 50, and his wife, Sirima a.k.a Nabi, had already left Thai territory five years earlier since a warrant was issued for his arrest. 

Yishay is a Lahu native of Kengtung and son of a respected Baptist preacher. He became a military-sponsored militia leader of Wiangwong village, Loilong tract in Kengtung and later joined Khun Sa's Shanland United Army. 

He surrendered in 1996 along with Khun Sa, became a militia leader and set up a refinery near Nampong, Loi Tawkham tract in Tachilek district. His place is just northeast of the Thai-sponsored Yawngkha Model village Project, and is under the protection of a Burmese military unit from Tachilek, according to both Thai and local sources. 

"This action is a signal to the Burmese authorities that they have to do something about Yishay," said a military source to S.H.A.N.. 

Some observers however, are not optimistic. "When we seized Wei Hsuehkang's assets, all Rangoon did was to make him an invisible man," said another source. "But his business has never stopped." 

There are signs however that the drug industry may be moving from the Thai border to the triangle area in Mongyawng, wedged between Yunnan and Laos. 

Chao Ching, Wei's front man in Mongton, opposite Chiangmai, is setting up a new factory up there, according to both Thai and S.H.A.N. sources on the border.