Chiang Rai News
Laos Cracks Down on Drug Trafficking in Golden Triangle
CHIANG RAI – Northern Laos Authorities near the Golden Triangle have vowed to crack down harder on illegal drugs seen as threat to society by going after important ring leaders and dealers on the street as well as increasing border inspections around the Golden Triangle area where narcotics are smuggled in and out of Laos-Myanmar and Thailand
According to a Radio Free Asia authorities in Loas will be seeking out the country’s main drug rings, including small dealers and producers, by focusing the operation on the Laos-Myanmar and Thai borders where drugs are often smuggled into the country.
The Golden Triangle encompasses an area of about 367,000 square miles that overlaps the mountains of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand and is a major site for opium production, which is processed into heroin.
A 2014 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that opium production in Laos and neighboring Myanmar remained a significant challenge to sustainable development in the region, despite continued eradication efforts.
High levels of consumption of refined opium in the form of heroin in parts of Southeast Asia represented a “clear danger to health and development, underscoring the need for evidence-based, health-centered approaches to prevention and treatment,” the report said.