Thai police: Drug dealers funded southern bombings
In places where terror groups persist year to year, decade decade, there’s often a support system that’s based on money from narcotics and kidnapping. It’s a pattern that’s seen all around the world, so whether it’s Shining Path and Cocaine, or the Taliban and Opium, you can bet the narcoterror ties are there for any long lasting terror groups.
Thai authorities alleged Saturday that drug dealers had a hand in deadly coordinated bombings in the country’s south that killed four people and wounded dozens more.
Police Col. Jakraporn Thaenthong, said the death toll from Friday night’s three bombs in the border town of Sungai Kolok climbed to four after a wounded victim died in hospital. Jakraporn, the town’s police chief, said that 13 of the more than 60 people hurt in the attack were severely wounded.
The attack by bombs concealed in a car and two motorcycles in the town bordering Malaysia was one of the biggest since Thailand’s new government was installed in August. More than 4,700 people have been killed in the Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces of Thailand since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks.
“The attacks were in response to the authorities’ frequent crackdown on narcotics,” Jakraporn said. He said that since the new government took office in August, police have seized about 100,000 methamphetamine tablets in Narathiwat province, where Sungai Kolok is located. He said the latest anti-drug crackdown in the area took place on Wednesday.