I believe that many friends still remember the Mekong Massacre 11 years ago, because of this case, many people know for the first time about the chaotic "extralegal land" of the "Golden Triangle". Naw Kham, the culprit of the massacre, was once the "godfather" of the Golden Triangle, but the moment he extended his evil hand to China, he was doomed to the end of his own destruction.
Born in 1969 to a wealthy family in Burma, Naw Kham grew up in a life of excitement, so he first served in Myanmar's MTA and then joined the gang of drug lord Khun Shah.
Kunsha
Since the 1960s, Kun Sha was the biggest drug lord in the Golden Triangle region, and by the end of the 1980s, Kun Sha controlled 80% of the drug trade in the entire Golden Triangle region, and the Myanmar government captured him several times, but did not dare to dispose of him, and was forced to release him, which shows how powerful Kun Sha is. At the time of Kunsha's rise, Naw Kham was still just a nobody, and could only be regarded as the "little brother" within the Kunsha Group, and could not contact any core business.
In 1995, Kun Sha surrendered to the Burmese government on the condition of amnesty, and the golden basin washed its hands, but the evil and strife in the Golden Triangle did not stop, but intensified. Naw Kham is a very ambitious person, and after Kun Sha surrendered, he realized that if he wanted to become stronger and bigger, he still had to have the support and protection of political forces behind him. So Naw Kham spent a lot of money to bribe the top brass of the Burmese government army, and also incorporated the old department of Khun Shah, gradually grew up, and formed his own Naw Kham Group. Naw Kham was bold and fierce, and such a sinful place as the Golden Triangle made him feel like a fish, and soon Naw Kham became the biggest drug lord in the Golden Triangle region.
Naw Kham Group doesn't just make money from drug trafficking, and since 2007, Naw Kham has taken advantage of the Mekong River's geography. High "tolls" are charged specifically to passing ships. According to the recollections of some crew members who often walked this waterway, every time they passed through the area under Naw Kham's forces, they would occasionally see the muzzle of the black hole hole in the bushes not far away facing them, so everyone did not dare to resist or raise objections, and they would take money to eliminate the disaster.
Naw Kham
In addition, Naw Kham will also collect money through "kidnapping". There are many tribes in the Golden Triangle region, the forces are entangled, and the major forces are not short of money, so Naw Kham sent people to kidnap the children of these local tycoons or tribal leaders and extort huge ransoms from them. For the safety of their children's lives, even if they know that all this is Naw Kham's self-directed and self-acting, they can only swallow their anger and obediently pay money.
Even more distraught, Naw Kham was also involved in the human trafficking business, where countless women and children were abducted and sold by him, and no one knew what fate awaited them. In Naw Kham's view, human trafficking is a "good business" with a lot of profits, and it only takes a few people to get high returns, and as for what women and children who are trafficked will face, Naw Kham does not care at all.
Naw Kham is a very shrewd drug lord, and as his power grows, Naw Kham makes more and more money, but he is not just an "iron rooster" who can't get in or out. Naw Kham would divide the stolen money into 3 parts according to different proportions, one for subordinate members, one for dotting and bribing various forces, and the remaining one was Naw Kham's own. In this way, Naw Kham became the emperor of the "Golden Triangle", and the Burmese government did not dare to do anything to him. It can be said that if Naw Kham had not chosen to attack Chinese later and angered the mainland, he should still be able to call the wind and rain in the Golden Triangle.
According to people familiar with the matter, Naw Kham has always been disgusted with Chinese, mainly because the mainland has indirectly hit him many times before. In September 2010, the Burmese military once requisitioned merchant ships from the mainland to attack Naw Kham's headquarters, causing him heavy losses, and since then Naw Kham has hated Chinese merchant ships and planned to "give Chinese a little color to see." Second, the mainland has always been zero tolerance for drug trade, severe crackdown, once Naw Kham's drugs were seized by the mainland police during the transit, Naw Kham believes that China is blocking his financial path, so his dislike for Chinese is deeper.
If the above is only a personal grudge, there is another important reason for Naw Kham's attempt to strike At chinese merchant ships, that is, he believes that China has harmed his interests. In order to combat the drug trade, since the 1990s, the mainland has invested more than 500 million yuan to support Myanmar and Laos to carry out the "poppy replacement cultivation" campaign, and under the influence of this action, many farmers have gradually given up on the cultivation of opium poppies, which is tantamount to a salary draw for a drug lord like Naw Kham, and since then Naw Kham has had the idea of "teaching" Chinese. In addition, due to the industriousness and integrity of Chinese, the freight business of the Mekong River has gradually been dominated by Chinese merchant ships, which has also squeezed Naw Kham's business to a certain extent. The "new vendetta" plus the "old hatred" ignited Naw Kham's anger at Chinese.
Since 2009, Naw Kham has continuously attacked Chinese merchant ships on a small scale, causing many deaths and serious injuries, although the mainland has the intention to pursue responsibility, but these are foreign cases, we have no right to directly arrest Naw Kham, only through the Myanmar government. However, many people in the Myanmar government and military have been bribed by Naw Kham for many years, and Myanmar does not want to touch this "hard nail", and the mainland can only put pressure on the Myanmar government to arrest Naw Kham with its own hands.
On the morning of October 5, 2011, the Chinese merchant ship "Hoa Binh" and the Burmese merchant ship "Yuxing 8" were attacked in the waters of the Golden Triangle of the Mekong River and held hostage by the Naw Kham Group, and all 13 Chinese crew members on the two merchant ships were brutally killed, shaking the three countries of China, Thailand and Myanmar.
After the incident, the Thai media claimed that the Chinese merchant ship was discovered by the military for drug trafficking in Thailand, resulting in a gun battle between the two sides, and 13 Chinese crew members were killed by the military. The mainland did not respond to this flawed explanation, but sent the Xishuangbanna police to the scene of the incident to secretly visit and find many suspicious points. After investigation and sorting, the mainland police targeted the Naw Kham Group.
According to the regulations, the mainland police can not carry out investigation and arrest in other countries, and Naw Kham has been protected by many "umbrella" protectors, so the police organized a special team to hide in disguise, and through the interrogation of Naw Kham's men, they found out the organizational structure of the entire Naw Kham Group.
A month later, under the careful deployment of the mainland police, the "military division" of the Naw Kham group, Eli, was arrested in Laos. According to Eli's confession, the man behind the Mekong massacre was indeed Naw Kham, who instructed Eli to buy off some Thai soldiers, and through planting stolen Chinese drug trafficking, designed a gunfight between the Thai military and Chinese merchant ships, once the plan was achieved, the Thai soldiers could take advantage of this, and Naw Kham could not only benefit from it, but also solve years of resentment.
With solid evidence, the next step is to arrest Naw Kham. However, Naw Kham is a very cunning person, his base camp near the dense forest, the terrain is complex, the government is unable to take care of, over time it has become a paradise for criminals, so Naw Kham can always escape in the pursuit of the police. Coupled with the seriousness of this incident, Naw Kham knew that the Chinese government would not let him go, so he changed his face and hid, and there was no trace for a while.
Mainland police continued to secretly arrest Naw Kham until April 2012, when we learned that Naw Kham was going to burma by boat. The task force summed up the lessons of the past few failures, laid down a net of heaven and earth, and successfully captured Naw Kham the moment he landed.
Naw Kham's arrest does not mean that the Mekong tragedy is solved, and there are still many problems that need to be solved in the future. The news of Naw Kham's arrest shook the entire Golden Triangle, and his men and their families gathered a huge fine to find the Lao government, hoping to redeem Naw Kham with money.
At that time, the three countries of China, Thailand and Myanmar were all vying for Naw Kham, and each had its own reasons. Myanmar police say Naw Kham is a Burmese and has killed more than a dozen Burmese soldiers, so myanmar should dispose of him; Thailand says Naw Kham's lover and children are in Thailand and should be handed over to them.
However, Thailand and Myanmar have been very confused, and the mainland has remained unmoved, insisting that Naw Kham be tried by the Chinese court, because only in this way will Naw Kham get the punishment he deserves, and if it is handed over to Thailand or Myanmar, perhaps Naw Kham only needs to pay a fine to get away with it, which is not only a contempt for the law, but also a Chinese who died tragically at his hands.
After 10 days of communication and coordination, Naw Kham was eventually handed over to the Chinese police.
On September 20, 2012, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court held a public hearing of the Mekong Massacre. Naw Kham repeatedly retracted his confession throughout the whole process and refused to confess guilt. But in the face of ironclad evidence, Naw Kham's rebuttal seemed so pale and weak that in the end he chose to repent and ask for leniency. On December 20, the Yunnan Higher People's Court conducted a second-instance public trial. Before Naw Kham stepped into the courtroom, he once showed a mysterious smile, and he also behaved very calmly throughout the entire trial.
The reason Naw Kham is so calm, even smiling, is because he feels that he will not be sentenced to death. In Naw Kham's view, as long as enough money is given as compensation, the Chinese government will certainly treat him leniently and avoid death. As long as he is not sentenced to death, it is not difficult for him to make a comeback after he is released from prison.
Naw Kham despises life, and in his eyes, human life can be clearly priced, but now in China, his ideas are outrageously wrong. In the end, Naw Kham and four other main offenders were sentenced to death.
It is worth mentioning that the murderous Naw Kham is actually a devout Buddhist who eats and prays for a few days a month. When a Chinese reporter asked him why he believed in Buddhism and killed people, Naw Kham was speechless. In Naw Kham's eyes, he never put the lives of others in his eyes, and he finally fulfilled his retribution.