Laos makes big meth bust as U.N. warns of security challenges
The Associated Press
Police in Laos have made their second huge methamphetamine seizure in three months, a development that a United Nations expert on the illicit drug trade said reflects a security challenge in Southeast Asia.
Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said the January 2022 seizure of 36.5 million methamphetamine tablets in the northwestern province of Bokeo was the region’s second largest after 55.6 million meth pills were captured in October 2021 in the same province.
He warned that the Mekong River region, where the seizure took place, was experiencing a surge of drug production and trafficking that required strong efforts to get under control.
“Organized crime treats the Mekong region like a playground — it has all the elements they look for,” he said.
Lao Security Radio, a state broadcaster, reported that four residents of the province were arrested in Huay Xai district in a raid that also captured 590 kilograms of crystal meth — also known as ice — a minor amount of heroin and a pistol.
Bokeo borders Myanmar and Thailand, a frontier area known as the Golden Triangle that is infamous for illicit drug production. Heroin and the opium from which it is derived have been joined in recent decades by methamphetamine, mostly produced in Myanmar, especially its Shan state. (Pictured: Thai police display packages of seized methamphetamine in Bangkok in July 2019.)
“Production in Shan is off the charts, and Laos is now a favored gateway for traffickers,” Douglas said. Thailand is a major market for drugs from Myanmar, which are also shipped onward to other countries. Laos has a reputation for facilitating smuggling.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since February 2021, when the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. It now faces an armed challenge from foes of military rule, disrupting law enforcement operations to suppress the drug trade. The situation is further complicated because drug production is often associated with armed ethnic minority groups involved in political struggles with the government and sometimes with each other.
“Drugs and conflict in Shan have been connected for decades. But as security has broken down, especially the last eight or nine months, we’ve seen an explosion of supply hitting the Mekong and Southeast Asia,” Douglas said. “Neighbors like Thailand and Laos have been flooded with meth in recent months.”
“There are no easy fixes given the governance situation in Shan,” he said.
If the region wants to slow the drug flow from the Golden Triangle, Douglas said governments need to focus on the trafficking of precursor chemicals, securing borders and making it harder to launder money.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
