Mules carry Thai currency

Mules carry Thai currency

Despite assurances by Wa supremo, Chairman Bao Yuqiang, that the drug trade is run by businessmen operating outside the law and that the Wa leadership was simply a victim, a deserter from his United Wa State Army confided recently to S.H.A.N. that the proceeds in baht from its sales to Thai agents had to be transported on muleback. 

"Each mule can carry at least 50 kg", said Sergeant Ai Keud, 28, from Brigade 171's 619th Battalion, currently stationed at Kharngpa, north of the Shan State Army's Loi Taileng base. "We used at least 5-10 mules per trip." 

He explained that mules were preferred to motor vehicles in order to prevent the loss of all their takings in case of attack by hostile forces. "Some of the mules, if not all, might be able to escape the onslaught," he said. "In a truck, the potential to lose all our earnings is high." 

A Wa private receives 250 baht for his monthly pay whereas he, as a sergeant, got 300. "But on the average, I earned at least 2,000 baht each month for these special assignments," Ai Keud, a Palaung from northern Shan State, explained. "In some months, I even earned up to 10,000." 

Apart from methamphetamine, Mongton Township, where his battalion is located, also produces opium, according to him, who rejected junta officials' claim that the township had been rid of the poppy culture beginning this season. "There are about 40 bosses each with 100-300 hired laborers working for him in the fields," he said. "They are fed three meals a day, with men receiving 130 baht each and women 100 each for their daily wages."

Ai Keud, who speaks several languages, has been assigned to work with the Public Relations Department of the SSA. 

Wa units are organized on the communist model. His former battalion, the 619th, has Sarmlawt as "political commissar" and Sarngtay as "battalion commander."