Myanmar’s meth trade is booming after anti-drugs vigilante groups were silenced by dealers, leading to a wave of addiction
- Shan state is the epicentre of production in Myanmar, with local armed groups linking up with transnational gangs
- Myanmar is facing a public health disaster because of meth and few villages in the country are left unscathed
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 Afghanistan and is now believed to be the largest source of methamphetamine.
The multibillion-dollar industry outstrips rivals in Latin America to feed lucrative markets as far away as Sydney, Tokyo and Seoul.
Shan is the epicentre of production in Myanmar, with a network of local armed groups linking up with transnational trafficking gangs.
Kutkai sits between Mandalay and the militia-riddled town of Muse on the China border, a key entry point for precursor chemicals heading to Myanmar’s illegal meth labs.
