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THE BITTEREST PILL the World’S Drug Cartels Are Preying on Southeast Asia

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THE BITTEREST PILL the World’S Drug Cartels Are Preying on Southeast Asia CURRENT AFFAIRS Meth lab: unlike its close rival MDMA, methamphetamines are cheap and easy to make REGION THE BITTEREST PILL The world’s drug cartels are preying on Southeast Asia By Frédéric Janssens muggling three kilograms of crys- While most people saw the harsh sen- she arrived from Benin. Two weeks later, talline methamphetamine into tence as one of the world’s most unfor- Adelina Ononiw joined her in prison in Vietnam, a country known for its giving drug laws in play, eagle-eyed Bangkok. The 31-year-old South African, severe penalties for drug offences, observers saw it as further evidence of who had travelled from Nairobi, Kenya, Swas always going to be high risk. Yet for a strengthening West African-Southeast was found to be carrying three kilograms Preeyanooch Phuttharaksa this was a Asian drugs connection. of the same drug. gamble that went dramatically wrong. Three weeks before the 23-year-old While the list goes on, this small selec- Sentenced to death in June for her role was sentenced, a 48-year-old Malaysian tion of people serves to illustrate the surge in a synthetic drug ring that spans two woman was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarn- in methamphetamine smuggling between continents, the Thai college student abhumi Airport with almost five kilo- Africa and Southeast Asia since 2008. was recruited by a Nigerian drug cartel grams of ice (the street name of crystalline In Malaysia, the number of arrested to mule illicit drugs from Benin to methamphetamine) in her luggage, with drug couriers from West Africa almost Files Michal Novotny, Vietnam for $1,570. a street value of more than $500,000, as doubled in 2010 while in the Philippines Photos: 30 August 2012 SEA GLOBE SEA GLOBE August 2012 31 23 people associated with African drug Greater Mekong Subregion: primary methamphetamine trafficking routes trafficking organisations were arrested from January 2010 to June 2011. China However, African drug cartels are not the only smugglers keen to feed the India Bangladesh region’s growing appetite for drugs. Late Myanmar off the starting block, Iranian drug king- Hanoi pins have made serious moves into the Lao PDR region in recent years, and of the 557 suspected foreign traffickers arrested in Thailand Kuala Lumpur last year, 116 were Iranian. Bangkok Home to the Golden Triangle and Cambodia a transit point to China and beyond, Phnom Penh Vietnam Southeast Asia has become a key part of Africa and Iran’s global drug smuggling Expanded trafficking routes (after 2003) Emerging traficking routes syndicate; it has also picked up the habit Traditional trafficking routes (before 2003) 1,000 km on a spectacular scale. Source: Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, Myanmar, 2009 Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) Note: The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance have been the drugs of choice across by the United Nations. the region for many years. Yet with the number of users soaring in Southeast Asia, the region is currently in the midst of an ‘epidemic initiation phase’, according to the United Nations Drug Report 2012. In Malaysia – where authorities seized three million “party drug pills”, valued at $18.4m, in July – the number of ATS users quadrupled from 2008 to 2010. “East and Southeast Asia is now home to one-half of the world’s ATS users, and the prevalence increases in almost all countries,” said Gary Lewis, regional representative for East Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “The market is thus vast, but it also offers high profits Free rein: reputed opium warlord Khun Sa helped to establish Myanmar as a drug production hub because prices are relatively higher here. Iranian crystal methamphetamine is five times more expensive in Malaysia than in 2008. A 2011 survey conducted in five relatively affordable – between $4 and $7 in Iran. This makes the region particu- large cities in Vietnam, which is tipped to per pill in Bangkok – and are incorrectly larly attractive for transnational organ- be the next big meth market, reported that perceived as being not harmful. These ised criminal syndicates.” 56% of university students perceive there are two major drivers behind the If the number of seizures reflects the to be a lot of ATS users in the community. regional demand.” amount of product being shifted, then it “Southeast Asian students are part of a While African drug cartels are happily is fair to say that Southeast Asia’s increas- much wider range of users including sex diversifying from cocaine and heroin to ingly urban, young population with access workers, farmers, lorry drivers or con- feed Southeast Asia’s growing appetite for to rising disposable incomes makes for struction workers who use it to undertake methamphetamines, the region has long happy drug dealers. In 2010, 133m meth- backbreaking work,” said Lewis. “We been supplying itself. Thailand and the amphetamine pills were seized in East find ATS users among all social classes, in Philippines are well-known suppliers, but Michal Novotny, Files Michal Novotny, and Southeast Asia, a whopping four- both urban and rural areas. Beyond their the vast majority of ATS are sourced from Photos: fold increase from the 32m intercepted image of ‘modernity’, these drugs are Myanmar’s eastern Shan State, where q 30 August 2012 SEA GLOBE SEA GLOBE August 2012 31 CURRENT AFFAIRS After dark: the region’s nightlife feeds a growing drug market in Southeast Asia In global terms it is true that Cambodia is still a minor player, but it is becoming a producer Gary Lewis, UNODC local cartels funnel goods through Laos and recent claim from the Cambodian interior Cambodia to avoid Thailand’s strict minister that “Cambodia is not a drug border controls. producer” may have to be re-evaluated. Mummy’s busy: drug use in Cambodia However, increasing numbers of lab “In global terms, it is true that Cambodia seizures in what were previously transit is still a minor player,” said Lewis. “But countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia the country is now becoming a producer, and Cambodia indicates the emergence of and this increases the need for Cambodia alternative manufacturing hubs. to prioritise effective law enforcement and The number of labs dismantled between cooperation with regional countries. 2009 and 2010 doubled in Cambodia, “ATS are now the main illicit drugs threat which seized some 264,000 methamphet- for the whole region. There has been a sig- amine tablets last year, three times more nificant expansion in the manufacture, traf- than in 2010. In May, Cambodian police ficking and use of methamphetamines in the disassembled six drug-manufacturing past five years. ATS production is no longer sites around Phnom Penh, seizing large a ‘cottage’ industry: we are seeing strong amounts of precursors used in ecstasy and trafficking links to powerful transnational Drug mule: Preeyanooch Phuttharaksa has methamphetamine production. A month organised groups. And this is not a problem AFP Bronstein/Getty; Paula been sentenced to death in Vietnam later, one more site was discovered. A which any country can tackle alone.” ¡ Photos: 32 August 2012 SEA GLOBE SEA GLOBE August 2012 33.
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