US Imposes Sanctions on Burma Drug Cartel

By LALIT K JHA

NEW YORK — The United States on Thursday named 26 individuals and 17 companies as “specially designated narcotics traffickers” and imposed new economic sanctions, including the freezing of assets held in the US.

The individuals and companies are associated with Wei Hsueh Kang and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), both of whom have been designated as trafficking in illegal drugs under the Kingpin Act.

Pao Yu Hsiang, Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng are the other key individuals designated by the Treasury Department on Thursday. Pao Yu Hsiang, indicted in 2005 with Wei Hsueh Kang, is the commander-in-chief of the UWSA.

Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng also have been charged by a New York court for money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

"In October 2007, Hong Kong authorities arrested Ho Chun Ting, a partner of Wei Hsueh Kang, but Hong Kong later released him for unknown reasons. Shih Kuo Neng is the manager of the Hong Pang conglomerate of companies, many of which are also designated today," the Treasury Department said.

The United Wa State Army is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia and is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine, said Barbara C. Hammerle of the US Treasury Department Office of Public Affairs (OFAC).

"Today OFAC is targeting the Wa's lieutenants and the financial holdings of this massive drug trafficking organization," she said, while calling on other nations to take similar actions.

The latest round of sanctions imposed on individuals and companies associated with these drug traffickers are expected to have an impact on the drug trade in the region where the Wa army operates.

On June 1, 2000, the US identified Wei Hsueh Kang, a senior commander of UWSA, as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act. In May 2003, the UWSA was identified as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker.

Federal prosecutors in New York in 2005 unsealed a criminal indictment charging Wei, along with his brothers, Wei Hsueh Lung and Wei Hsueh Ying, who were both designated as narcotics traffickers in the latest action. The US is offering a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to Wei Hsueh Kang's capture.

The action is part of ongoing US effort under the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers worldwide.

Internationally, 419 businesses and individuals associated with 75 drug kingpins have been designated by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act since June 2000.