| Country: | Thailand |
| Details of Formation: | Following the pledge by the prime minister to eradicate drugs, the first evidence of the group’s activity is from February 2003 and this “War on Drugs” campaign was announced to last three months. |
| Details of Termination: | PM Thaksin had announced that the campaign should be finished by April 30, 2003. There are no more reports afterwards that indicate that the death squads are still active. |
| Purpose: | The prime minister’s goal was to eradicate drugs, e.g. by targeting drug dealers. It was the PGM’s task to complete this process as quickly as possible, primarily by killing suspected drug dealers from secret blacklists. These blacklists were sometimes also used against political opponents. It has been reported that the group was intended to inform the police on suspected drug dealers. Referring to drug dealers coming to Thailand from other countries, the prime minister explicitly stated that the aim was not to arrest, but to kill them. |
| Organisation: | There is no information on the group’s leadership or chains of command, other than the fact that its members worked with the local police as informants on suspected drug dealers. Members were recruited from the police. |
| Weapons and Training: | -- |
| Size: | -- |
| Reason for Membership: | -- |
| Treatment of Civilians: | The group executed a large number of suspected drug dealers, operating outside the legal framework. Innocent people were killed as a result of being put on a blacklist of suspected drug dealers for political reasons by their opponents. The government did not pursue the people who killed civilians, indicating that it tolerated the group’s behaviour. News sources estimate the total number of victims at 2,000 to 2,500. |
| Other Information: | -- |
| References: | Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD. |