More has confronted a spike in methamphetamine trafficking across the Mekong River following the military coup in neighbouring Myanmar. Local volunteers alongside the river are now helping out to establish potential drug smugglers disguised as fishermen.
The volunteers tip off police when they see suspicious exercise since they can’t make arrests and confronting a drug trafficker could possibly be harmful.
One volunteer says he tipped off police about suspected drug traffickers carrying packages from their boats and hidding the medicine within the grass along the riverbank. He says the suspects have been later arrested with 5 million methamphetamine tablets often recognized as “yaba,” meaning “crazy drug.”
The Golden Triangle, the place Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet, has been infamous for drug smuggling for decades. For many rebel and militant teams in Myanmar border towns close to Thailand and Laos, synthetic drug manufacturing is a main source of revenue.
Crime syndicates in Myanmar are doubtless using the navy takeover to their advantage to strengthen their positions and improve artificial drug manufacturing, in accordance with Jeremy Douglas from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He says “the items are in place to scale up” the drug commerce.
Even although border patrol has tightened along the Thai-Myanmar border, drug traffickers are utilizing a route through Laos, crossing the Mekong River to smuggle the medicine to Thailand. With the uptick in supply, the value of methamphetamine has dropped to a low of 50 baht (around $1.60 USD)..