Laos: big meth bust, UN warns of Southeast Asia security breakdown

Police in Laos have seized their second huge haul of methamphetamine in three months, a development that a UN expert on the illicit drug trade said Saturday reflects a breakdown of security in Southeast Asia.

Jeremy Douglas, the regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said the seizing of 36.5 million methamphetamine tablets in the northwestern province of Bokeo was the region’s second largest after 55.6 million meth pills were captured in October in the same province.

He warned that the Mekong River region, where the seizure took place, was experiencing a surge in drug production and trafficking that required concerted efforts to get under control.

“Organised crime treat the Mekong region like a playground – it has all the elements they look for,” he said.

Lao Security Radio, a state broadcaster, said on its website that four residents of the province were arrested Wednesday in Huay Xai district in a raid that also captured 590kg (1,300 pounds) of crystal meth – also known as ice – a minor amount of heroin and a pistol.

Bokeo borders on Myanmar and Thailand, a frontier area known as the Golden Triangle that is infamous for the production of illicit drugs. Heroin and the opium from which it is derived have been joined in recent decades by methamphetamine, mostly produced in Myanmar, especially its Shan state.“Production in Shan is off the charts, and Laos is now a favoured gateway for traffickers,” Douglas said in an email.

Thailand is a major market for drugs from Myanmar, which are also shipped onwards to other countries. Laos is a poor, sparsely inhabited landlocked country with a reputation for corruption that can facilitate smuggling.