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MYANMAR-CRIME-DRUGS
Floating meth sacks in Myanmar sea worth $20 million: official
YANGON, Oct 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Sacks of crystal meth scooped from the
sea by Myanmar fishermen who mistook it for a deodorant substance had a
street value of $20 million, an official told AFP Sunday, in a country
believed to be the world’s largest methamphetamine producer.
The accidental drug haul off Myanmar’s coastal Ayeyarwady region occurred
when fishermen spotted a total of 23 sacks floating in the Andaman Sea on
Wednesday.
Each one contained plastic-wrapped bags labelled as Chinese green tea —
packaging commonly used by Southeast Asian crime gangs to smuggle crystal
meth to far-flung destinations including Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Locals were mystified by the crystallised substance in the sacks, said Zaw
Win, a local official of the National League for Democracy party who assisted
the fishermen and police.
At first, they assumed it was a natural deodorant chemical known as
potassium alum, which is widely used in Myanmar.
“So they burned it, and some of them almost fainted,” he told AFP.
They informed the police, who on Thursday combed a beach and found an
additional two sacks of the same substance — bringing the total to 691
kilogrammes (1,500 pounds) which would be worth about $20.2 million, Zaw Win
said.
“In my entire life and my parents’ lifetime, we have never seen drugs
floating in the ocean before,” he said.
The massive haul was sent on Sunday to Pyapon district police, who declined
to comment on it.
Myanmar’s multi-billion-dollar drug industry is centred in eastern Shan
state, whose poppy-covered hills are ideal cover for illicit production labs.
Made-in-Myanmar crystal meth — better known as ice — is smuggled out of
the country to more lucrative markets using routes carved out by narco gangs
through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that Southeast
Asia’s crime groups are netting more than $60 billion a year — a
conservative estimate, according to experts — thanks to a sophisticated
smuggling and money-laundering operation.
In March, Myanmar authorities seized more than 1,700 kilogrammes of crystal
meth worth nearly $29 million, which police said at the time was their
biggest drug haul this year.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1541 hrs