Laos hands over ‘drug lord’ to Chinese security

Laos has handed over the suspected leader of a drug gang accused of killing 13 members of Chinese boat crews on a lawless stretch of the Mekong River, an incident that caused Beijing to send gunboat patrols to the region near its borders.

Naw Kham, a Burmese man in his 40s – notorious for his role in suspected drug smuggling in the “Golden Triangle” where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet – was handed over to China, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

He was found by a four-nation joint investigation to have been involved in organising the killings of the Chinese crew of two boats last October, the deadliest assault on Chinese nationals overseas in modern times. Nine members of a Thai military taskforce are also implicated in the murders.

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“There is evidence to show that Naw Kham and core members in his gang colluded with lawless Thai soldiers and carried out the murders on the Mekong River,” Liu Yuejin, leader of an investigation team from China’s ministry of public security.

China’s state broadcaster CCTV said Naw Kham’s group hijacked the Chinese boats in Burma, bound the crew and transferred drugs to the vessels. After they reached Thailand, they killed the crew and threw their bodies into the river.

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