Smuggling of drugs by boat “declining’

AO MAKHAM: The new commissioner of the Royal Thai Navy visited Phuket today and told the Third Naval Area Command to continue to be vigilant in looking out for smuggled drugs. Vice Admiral Taweesak Somapa’s New Year message to the base at Ao Makham was that there appeared to be less of a problem now in the Andaman Sea. “More drugs are transported by land than by sea,” he said. But the Navy was taking a broad approach by organizing training camps for the young and for addicts on the dangers of drugs. Fishermen had also been warned about straying into Malaysian or Burmese waters close to Thailand’s border, he said. These warnings seemed to have been effective, he said, noting that although the Thai fishing fleet had increased, the number of Thai boats arrested in Burmese waters had declined in recent years.