Victory Over Opium

As the fighting gradually fades in Indochina, Southeast Asia's other war intensifies. Up in the cool highlands of the Golden Triangle where the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, fighting rages for control of the area's 700-ton illicit opium crop--a full two-thirds of the world's output. A major participant in that war fell last week when Thai agents, advised by U.S. narcotics agents, captured Lo Hsing-han, long suspected of being Southeast Asia's largest and most powerful heroin tycoon. In a rare display of cooperation, Burmese armed forces, which at one time winked at Lo's operations, attacked Lo and men from his private army, forcing them across the border into Thailand and into the hands of the Thai Special Narcotics Organization.

The capture of Lo is the most impressive victory to date in a campaign launched by the U.S. to clean up the Golden Triangle. For centuries the region's residents had consumed most of its flourishing opium crop, although some was always set aside for export.

After 1970, with Turkish production of the narcotic curtailed by U.S. pressure, the major dealers in the Triangle began large-scale exports. They had discovered that they could reap huge profits by selling their heroin--which they refine from the morphine derivative of raw opium--to the burgeoning markets among the G.I.s in Viet Nam and elsewhere in the West. One kilo of pure heroin--which sells for $300 at the Burma-Thai border--is worth at least $3,000 in Saigon, $10,000 in Marseille and $50,000 in New York City.

To stem the exports, the U.S. dispatched agents to Thailand, where by 1970 they established an undercover network. There in the north, U.S. and Thai agents set up observation posts on all the main roads leading south from the tri-border area. Thanks to their reports, Thai police, to date, have been able to seize over 20 tons of opium.

No Win Switch. The impact of these efforts, however, remained limited without the help of Burma. For more than a decade, Burmese Strongman Ne Win had permitted one of Burma's militias, the Ka Kwe Ye (K.K.Y.), to engage in the opium trade as a reward for its support of his campaign against Communist guerrillas. With this franchise, the K.K.Y. and its most important leader, Lo Hsing-han, openly carried opium along Burmese roads. Early this year Ne Win abruptly switched policy. Worried about growing drug addiction among Burmese youth and realizing that he would have no chance of receiving aid from the U.S. unless he cooperated, he ordered Lo to get out of the opium trade.

Lo refused. The ruthless, 38-year-old Chinese warlord had with his private army of as many as 5,000 men literally taken over the Burmese border town of Tachilek (pop. 10,000). There he had eight heroin factories and extensive warehousing facilities for independent operators. One narcotics agent who has studied Lo carefully told TIME'S Peter Simms: "You could take your opium to Lo and get a warehouse receipt that was as good in Tachilek as a First National City Bank draft is in New York. His chemists would analyze your opium, tell you the cost and give you an exact delivery date after processing. Anything you stored in his warehouse would never be stolen or confiscated by Burmese authorities."

As of last week, Lo was in a Thai prison, his factories and warehouses were leveled and at least 14 tons of his opium had been blown up by the Burmese. Now the war against the opium traffickers will focus more on Thailand.

There, remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army, swelled by local recruits, have plied the opium trade ever since they gave up trying to harass the Chinese Communists 25 years ago. Last year, Bangkok and the U.S. paid the Kuomintang's two most powerful leaders, General Li Wen-huan and General Tuan Shi-wen, nearly $2,000,000 to get out of the opium traffic. Thai authorities believe that they have not yet ceased their trading. They will be the next targets of the crackdown.

Even the destruction of Li and Tuan's operations will not stop the supply of opium from the Triangle. Dozens of smaller traders wait to step in when big operators disappear. The Triangle's climate and altitude are perfect for the poppy--the cultivation of which provides thousands of villagers with a livelihood. One seasoned opium trader remarked: "In this business, there are not only millions of dollars at stake but thousands of people who have a vested interest in the system. You might as well try to plug up a sieve."

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