Suspect In Drug Bust Returned To Thailand

A Burmese man wanted on charges of organizing the third-largest shipment of heroin ever seized in the United States was turned over Saturday to Thai authorities.

Burma’s military government said Li Yun-chung was flown to Bangkok aboard a special Thai Air Force aircraft. Li fled to Burma last month after failing to appear in a Thai court on drug-related charges.

Li was indicted in U.S. District Court in New York in May 1996 in connection with 1,070 pounds of heroin, worth an estimated $50 million, seized in Hayward, Calif., in 1991.

It was not known whether Thai authorities would transfer Li to U.S. custody to face those charges.