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

Just a few days ago, ASEAN member state Malaysia made headlines when the country’s coastguard made its largest ever seizure of methamphetamine.

According to the United Nations (UN), the market for synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine (meth), continues to grow in most ASEAN member states and across Asia despite the COVID-19 pandemic."While the world has shifted its attention to the COVID-19 pandemic, all indications are that production and trafficking of synthetic drugs and chemicals continue at record levels in the region," said Jeremy Douglas of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).Drug trade in the Golden Triang

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.

A Myanmar court on Wednesday sentenced a veteran Australian media publisher to 13 years in jail after a police raid uncovered a stash of drugs at his home last year. Ross Dunkley, 60, has long had links with the media industry across Southeast Asia, co-founding English language newspaper The Myanmar Times when the country was in the tight grip of a military dictatorship. He also used to be a co-owner of Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post. Police arrested him, his busin

Raids on jungle drug labs have been met with heavy artillery fire, Myanmar narcotics police said Thursday, in an area riddled with armed groups accused of pumping out much of the world's methamphetamine.Myanmar is under increasingly intense pressure from its neighbours to close down the meth labs festooning lawless parts of Shan State, the heart of the notorious "Golden Triangle".A major crackdown kicked off last month in Kutkai township, northern Shan, the army has said, where

Despite the best efforts of law enforcement agencies and border management officials, organised crime is as rampant as ever in Southeast Asia.Apart from the thriving drug trade – the methamphetamine market alone is now estimated to be worth up to US$61 billion annually – human trafficking, migrant smuggling and the illegal wildlife trade are among the other pressing challenges which continue to plague the region according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released y

Vietnam police have busted a massive meth ring in a Ho Chi Minh City mansion allegedly run by a Chinese national who used a textile company as a cover for the operation, police and state media reported Thursday.Police on Wednesday stormed the luxury property in Vietnam's largest city, guarded with private security and outfitted with cameras during an hours-long raid which unearthed sacs of methamphetamine believed to have been smuggled in from Lao. Around 300 kilogrammes (kg) of

Porous borders and a lack of enforcement contributed to the record seizure of methamphetamine in East and Southeast Asia last year.Drug trade in the Golden Triangle – a region where the borders of Myanmar, Lao and Thailand meet – is booming thanks to an increase in transnational organised crime groups operating, manufacturing and trafficking methamphetamine and other drugs in the region, according to a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).Substantial quantitie