Shan State

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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At least 14 dead in Myanmar rebel attack

At least 14 people have been killed in ongoing fighting Thursday between Myanmar's military and rebels who mounted a series of attacks, including an unprecedented strike on an army academy, apparently in retaliation for massive drug seizures.Ethnic armed rebel groups have for decades fought against the military - and often between themselves - for land and resources in Myanmar's east.Experts say the area is now the world's largest meth-producing region, funding the complex web

16 August 2019
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Myanmar rocket festival fires up

Clad in elaborate headdresses representing dragons and wizards, Myanmar's ethnic Pa'O fire huge, homemade rockets into the sky – an annual call for plentiful rains and a chance for a windfall of cash. The Pa'O are one of the largest of the country's minority groups, numbering around 1.2 million people and living mainly in Shan state's highlands.They are overwhelmingly Buddhist but many intertwine animism with their faith, believing they descend from a she-dra

2 May 2019
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Myanmar: Meth capital of the world

A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) this week pointing out that Myanmar’s Shan State is one of the world’s largest producers of crystal methamphetamine is hardly surprising.There have been record seizures of meth in the last two years in ASEAN countries and the surrounding region – 1.6 tonnes in Indonesia, 1.2 tonnes in Malaysia, 788 kilograms (kg) in Thailand, 1.2 tonnes in Western Australia and 0.9 tonnes in Melbourne – all of which is thought to have come from Shan State.Autho

12 January 2019
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