East, Southeast Asia had record methamphetamine seizures last year. Profits remain in the billions
A new United Nations report says East and Southeast Asia are awash in record amounts of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs
BANGKOK (AP) — East and Southeast Asia are awash in record amounts of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a new report Tuesday. It traced their source largely to the cross-border region known as the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.
The region is historically known for growing opium and hosting many of the labs that convert it to heroin.
“We have become used to record seizures, but the scale meth production in the Golden Triangle has now reached is massive. So are the profits generated,” Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC’s deputy regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told The Associated Press. “For East and Southeast Asia, we are now looking at something closer to $80 billion per year feeding back into the region’s illicit economies.”
The Golden Triangle area has seen decades of political instability.
