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Massive Haul of Methamphetamine Seized by Laos Police

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Massive Haul of Methamphetamine Seized by Laos Police

An official from the United Nations has reported that Laos police have seized approximately 36 million methamphetamine pills. The second-largest single seizure Laos police have ever made.

During the two-hour interrogation, Thong Xai Thor, who is 22 years old, confessed that the drugs belonged to Xai Tong Thor, who is 40 years old and a resident of Hoeyxay. He was arrested at his home by police.

Wednesday’s seizure took place in Bokeo province, at the heart of the Golden Triangle, an area of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand notorious for the production and distribution of narcotics.

According to Laos police, a resident of Bokeo’s Hoeyxay district contacted police when he saw a suspicious vehicle. When the police officers stopped the truck, they discovered the drugs inside beer crates.

Three months earlier, officers found 55 million speed pills hidden in a beer truck in the northern province of Bokeo, Laos’s biggest ever drug bust.

There is a lucrative drug trade in Laos due to its location in the Golden Triangle along Myanmar’s border and Thailand’s border. Over the last few years, the volume of shipments through the landlocked nation has increased tenfold.

Since Thailand increased border patrols to halt the spread of Coronavirus, Laos has become a gateway for traffickers moving methamphetamine across the Mekong River into Thailand from the Shan state in Myanmar.

Jeremy Douglas, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s regional representative for South-East Asia, said Thursday that four people were arrested in the latest bust on Wednesday in Huay Xai. Authorities seized 590 kilogrammes of crystal meth.

The four arrestees were relatively low-level criminals. “There were no kingpins arrested,” he said. The seizure is Laos’ second biggest to date. Thailand has never experienced a seizure of that magnitude, Douglas said.

Methamphetamine production

The methamphetamine pills were believed to be destined for Thailand. However the crystal methamphetamine was intended for higher-valued markets including Australia, Douglas said.

In Bangkok and other Southeast Asian cities, street prices have plummeted due to a glut of methamphetamine pills in the region.

According to Jeremy Douglas, Methamphetamine production has reached unprecedented levels and has been exacerbated by the coup that paralyzed Myanmar’s economy and livelihoods a year ago.

Myanmar’s lawlessness from the Feb 1 military coup makes it easy for illicit drug labs to flourish throughout the Shan State. Precursor chemicals from China are also flooding into Myanmar unchecked.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Southeast Asia and the Pacific) Jeremy Douglas oversees and manages operations and strategy from Myanmar to the Pacific in the field of the rule of law, non-traditional security threats, law enforcement, criminal justice, and drug-related supply and health issues.

In addition, Jeremy Douglas serves as UNODC’s liaison with China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, as well as regional organizations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS).

Contact details
(+66-2) 288-2100
jeremy.douglas@un.org
twitter logo @jdouglasSEA

 

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