Suspect stands trial on Mekong killings

Prime gang suspect faces charges in court, reports Zhang Yan in Kunming, Yunnan province.

The story begins at the start of 2011, when two Chinese cargo ships refused to pay protection money to a large drug-trafficking gang on the Mekong River. In both cases, the captains refused to negotiate with the gang and continued on their way.

On Sept 22, 2011, the Myanmar army rented two Chinese merchant ships to act as decoys in an operation to wipe out the gang and several members were either killed or injured.

Naw Kham, the leader of the gang, swore revenge.

On Oct 5 the ships that had refused to pay protection money, Hua Ping and Yu Xing 8, were attacked and 13 Chinese fishermen aboard were murdered.

Naw Kham will stand trial in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, on Thursday. In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Chinese police revealed the details of the case, the subsequent investigation and the arrest of the gang leader.

"The prosecution case is that Naw Kham's criminal gang colluded with renegade Thai soldiers in premeditated attacks on Chinese ships," said Xian Yanming, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau.

"According to the agreement, Naw Kham's group would hijack Chinese cargo ships, conceal drugs on board to frame the crew and then send them into Thai waters to make it appear that the authorities had uncovered a major drug-related case and killed the 'drug traffickers'. Meanwhile, Naw Kham's drug-trafficking ships would have unimpeded passage through Thai waters," said Xian.

Naw Kham, a 44-year-old Myanmar national, was a former aide to the late drug warlord Khun Sa, the former leader of the now defunct Shan rebel Mong Thai Army, according to Liu Yuejin, director of the narcotics control department of the Ministry of Public Security.

When Khun Sa surrendered to the authorities in 1996, Naw Kham consolidated his powerbase and recruited members to form a new gang, said Liu.

The gang had more than 100 members and an arsenal that included AK-47 assault rifles and M16 semi-automatic rifles, plus bazookas and machine guns, according to Yu Haibin, a senior police officer from the narcotics control department and director of the team China sent to Laos to conduct an investigation.

"The gang was mainly active in the Golden Triangle region, the border area between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. It was involved in various violent crimes, including the manufacture and trafficking of drugs, kidnapping, robbery, blackmail, charging protection money and murder along the Mekong River. All this posed a threat to the lives of crew members and endangered their property," said Yu.

Between 2008 and 2011, the gang launched 28 attacks against Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River, killing 16 Chinese citizens and injuring three. They made around 400 million yuan ($63 million) from these activities, according to statistics from the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau.

In addition, 13 Myanmar police officers have been killed by the gang since 2010.

"These armed suspects were both cunning and violent and we risked our lives every day," said Hu Zujun, director of the anti-drugs bureau of the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Bureau.

"During the 10 months of the investigation, we made every effort to cooperate with our counterparts from the three other countries to finally arrest Naw Kham and destroy his organization," he said.

He said the murders occurred in the Golden Triangle, where drug traffickers, mafia-type gangs and illegal "armies" frequently made armed sorties to seize more interests, which resulted in no effective control, chaotic public order and a grim security situation.

"The fact that the incident took place outside China and the suspects were foreigners greatly limited the police's capacity for intelligence collection, investigation and arrests, which made the preliminary investigation very difficult," said Hu.

After cooperating with the Thai police, inspecting the murder scene, attending autopsies and paying visits to 200 crewmen in 30 merchant ships, the Chinese police got firsthand information, he said.

"The investigation of the crime scene, criminal means and a comprehensive analysis of intelligence suggest strongly that Naw Kham's gang was responsible for the murders," said Hu.