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Laos torches narcotics stockpile on World Drug Day
XAM NEUA, Laos, June 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Laos drug officials torched
around 40 kilogrammes of heroin and tens of thousands of “yaba” pills
Tuesday, a small but significant fraction of the narcotics burned on World
Drug Day in a region awash with illegal substances.
The ceremony was among several destruction events that took place across
Southeast Asia, home to the infamous “Golden Triangle” — a zone bisecting
Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos that is the world’s second-largest drug
producing area.
Record amounts of methamphetamine pills and “ice” — the highly addictive
crystallised version — are pushed out across the region and as far as Japan
and Australia, prompting massive seizures this year.
Sharing borders with five countries, poor and landlocked Laos is a key
transit route for Myanmar-made meth as well as a producer of opium, the raw
ingredient of heroin.
On Tuesday, AFP was given rare access to the ceremony in the reclusive
communist country, held to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and
Illicit Trafficking, as it ramps up efforts to tackle the multi-billion
dollar trade.
Bricks of grey-coloured heroin and piles of vanilla-scented yaba pills —
which contain caffeine and methamphetamine — were torched in Xam Neua, a
small northeastern town that is a gateway to Vietnam and a popular
trafficking route.
“Here in Southeast Asia, methamphetamine markets continue to expand,” said
Erlend Falch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“Increasing amounts are being trafficked within — and from — the region.
Several countries in the region have reported record seizures in a few months
of 2018.”
Mountainous, sparsely populated and with porous borders, Laos is a well-
used route for drug traffickers.
Authorities have had some success in stemming the trade but say increasing
cross-border cooperation is the only way to combat the drug manufacturers in
Myanmar’s lawless Wa State and the crime gangs that distribute their product.
Myanmar marked World Drug Day with its own dramatic torching ceremonies,
setting a huge stockpile of pills, cannabis, heroin and opium on fire in the
former capital Yangon.
The country also hosted ceremonies in Mandalay and Taunggyi, destroying
narcotics worth $187 million in total, officials said.
Thailand began its torching of drugs earlier, destroying more than six
tonnes of narcotics on Monday, the bulk of which was methamphetamine.
Major seizures worth tens of millions of dollars have shattered records
across the region this year, including a $45-million of yaba and crystal meth
from Myanmar discovered in Bangkok last month.
UNODC has urged governments in the Golden Triangle to tackle corruption to
stamp out the illicit drug trade in the region, estimated to be worth $40
billion.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1330 hrs