Yaba

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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Drones, big money and cheap drugs

As dusk falls along the Mekong River, a nightly dance begins between Thai border security and Lao drug gangs now using drones, scouts and a pool of poor fishermen to shift record amounts of meth into Thailand.Landlocked, secretive and with ungovernable borders, Lao has become a sluice for transporting Made-In-Myanmar meth to the drug hungry markets of Southeast Asia and Australia, where billion-dollar seizures are now being made.Whisked over the remote mountains of Lao – one of the world&#039

13 June 2019
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Ruthless meth networks get Myanmar hooked

Mobs of stick-wielding church-goers in Myanmar's northeast used to descend on dealers and addicts in a desperate effort to save their communities from a meth-induced health crisis sweeping the country.But anonymous death threats brought the vigilante operations to a halt."It simply became too dangerous for us," says Zau Man, leader of the local Baptist church in Kutkai, a town in Shan State scarred by addiction.Myanmar is the second-biggest producer of opium in the world after

21 February 2019
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Drug 'godfathers' surrender to Bangladesh police

Some 102 Bangladeshi meth dealers have surrendered to authorities at a pre-scheduled ceremony in a coastal town, officials said Saturday, as a Philippines-style anti-narcotics crackdown sows fear among kingpins.Bangladesh last year launched a "war" on drugs following a proliferation of illegal substances in the South Asian nation of 165 million people, mostly of cheap methamphetamine pills known as "yaba".Police said 24 yaba "godfathers", as well as lieutenants a

17 February 2019
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