Thai authorities, in a rare show of cross-border police cooperation, on Friday deported a suspected methamphetamine trafficker to Myanmar, where he faces an arrest warrant.
Alleged Burmese drug trafficker Shwe Nu is escorted by police after a press conference at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board on Friday. Thailand deported him to Myanmar where he faces an arrest warrant. (EPA photo)
Shwe Nu, 46, was arrested in Bangkok on June 2, at the request of Myanmar anti-narcotics police who issued a warrant for his arrest last year after they discovered 171,000 methamphetamine pills in his home in Myanmar's Shan State.
``Shwe Nu is believed to be a major supplier of methamphetamine pills to Myanmar labourers working in Thailand,'' said Pol Gen Pongsapat Pongcharoen, chief of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.
Immigration records showed Shwe Nu had entered Thailand by plane 19 times in recent years.
Although Shwe Nu faces criminal charges in Thailand, police agreed to send him back to Myanmar to face charges there first.
"If he gets 20 years in jail, we will ask to have him back to face another sentence here,'' Pol Gen Pongsapat said. "If he gets life, we'll forget about it.''