Drugs

Asia’s Biggest Drug Bust In Lao

Laotian police have carried out Asia's biggest-ever single seizure of illegal drugs, finding more than 55 million methamphetamine pills in the back of a beer truck, a United Nations (UN) official confirmed Thursday.The Southeast Asian country has in recent years been a gateway for drug traffickers moving meth shipments out of Myanmar's troubled Shan state and into Thailand and beyond. On Wednesday, police stopped a truck carrying beer crates in Lao's northern province

29 October 2021
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War On Drugs: Mothers Taking Duterte To Court

On 11 May 2017, Crisanto Lozano set off early in the morning from his home in Manila. He was going to renew his security guard licence, a requirement for his profession. By afternoon, he still hadn’t returned, nor was he picking up his phone. Then the family realised that Crisanto’s younger brother, Juan Carlos, was also missing.The next day, they heard news that two bodies had been discovered nearby.

11 October 2021
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Brazil Hospital Chain Accused Of Hiding COVID Deaths

One of Brazil’s biggest healthcare providers has been accused of covering up coronavirus deaths, pressuring doctors to prescribe ineffective treatments, and testing unproven drugs on elderly patients as part of ideologically charged efforts to help the Brazilian government resist a COVID lockdown.Prevent Senior, a health maintenance organization with a chain of hospitals and more than half a million members, is in the crosshairs of a congressional inquiry into Brazil’s coronavirus crisis and

30 September 2021
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Overseas Volunteers Scramble To Help India Breathe

Seema Devgan has all but abandoned her day job, as she and a loose collection of overseas volunteers scramble to locate desperately needed supplies for COVID-19 stricken family, friends and strangers in India.From her apartment in Singapore, Devgan spends hours each day fielding frantic appeals for help on WhatsApp, phoning suppliers and scouting for desperately needed drugs and oxygen."It's so difficult," the 47-year-old said, briefly struggling to hold back tears in the face

30 April 2021
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Thailand Faces Meth Surge After Myanmar Coup

A village watchman trains his binoculars on a suspicious fishing boat - the first line of defence as Thailand braces for a fresh methamphetamine influx after a coup in neighbouring Myanmar.The kingdom's narcotics bureau has already seized more than 80 million "yaba" pills just in the past six months, a record haul partly blamed on a supply glut caused by the coronavirus pandemic.But now the United Nations (UN) warns of an even bigger deluge as Myanmar's legal economy tanks

30 March 2021
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Rohingya Reduced To Drug Smuggling

Rohingya refugees fleeing anti-Muslim persecution in Myanmar are being exploited by the Arakan Army to smuggle synthetic drugs into Bangladesh. The army, which is demanding greater autonomy for Myanmar’s Rakhine State, uses money from the drug sales to purchase arms and ammunition. It moves the drugs from production centres in Myanmar’s interior to Rakhine State, where the Rohingya make the arduous trek along refugee migration routes into neighbouring Bangladesh.

31 May 2020
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Singapore Slammed For Zoom Death Sentence

Singapore was criticised for being "cruel and inhumane" Wednesday after a death sentence was handed down via video-conferencing platform Zoom.Malaysian drug trafficker Punithan Genasan was Friday sentenced to hang in a hearing conducted remotely due to restrictions in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus, court officials said.The 37-year-old had been found guilty over the trafficking of at least 28.5 grams (1.0 ounce) of heroin, a crime punishable by death under the city-st

21 May 2020
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COVID-19 Survivors’ Blood In High Demand

The COVID-19 coronavirus has infected more than 4.3 million people, taking with it close to 300,000 lives. Governments around the world have imposed strict measures to contain the deadly outbreak. This includes citywide lockdowns and travel curbs. The pandemic has severely affected livelihoods, local businesses and the general economy.

13 May 2020
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Myanmar Army Smashes Three Drug Labs

Sacks of heroin and methamphetamine are laid out in endless rows in a remote Myanmar border zone during a rare raid in the heart of Southeast Asia's infamous 'Golden Triangle'.The seizure in one of the world's biggest narcotics-producing regions put three major laboratories out of business this week and hauled in 43 million meth tablets.Record amounts of drugs continue to be churned out of the lawless forest areas by rebel groups and shadowy organised crime networks making

8 March 2020
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Albayalde indicted for corruption in drug war

The former chief police enforcer of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs will be charged with corruption for allegedly protecting officers linked to the narcotics trade, the justice department said Thursday.Oscar Albayalde resigned in October after serving as Philippine police chief for more than a year, having presided over an anti-narcotics crackdown that left thousands of drug suspects dead.The episode that led to his sudden fall from grace cast an unwelcome ligh

17 January 2020
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Confessions of a cannabis farmer

Holed up alone in a suburban British house thousands of miles from home, cannabis farmer Cuong Nguyen spent months carefully nurturing his plants, one of thousands of Vietnamese migrants working in the UK's multi-billion dollar weed industry.Cuong - who is now 41 - slipped into Britain illegally, hidden under a lorry before going on to grow cannabis in homes, hotels and even a stable.His dangerous journey from the poor, rough Vietnamese port town of Haiphong to Britain's illegal can

17 October 2019
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Philippine police chief quits amid narcotics scandal

The Philippines' top policeman, who leads the nation's deadly drugs crackdown, quit on Monday as he faces allegations of protecting officers accused of selling a huge haul of seized narcotics.Though the scandal dates from before Oscar Albayalde's time as national police chief, it has raised fresh criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte's signature anti-narcotics campaign, which is key to his massive popularity among Filipinos.As part of Duterte's internationally condem

15 October 2019
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