The Golden Triangle and the Drug Cartels

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Read one of these days an interesting story in the NRC about the Golden Triangle written by Saskia Konniger. Among other things, she is the Southeast Asia correspondent of the said newspaper and in an article she sheds light on the extensive drug trade in the difficult-to-access 'Golden Triangle' between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, which is notorious as the world's largest synthetic drug lab. The mafia has free rein and the Thai authorities can only try to intercept drugs.

In a conversation with the Thai army commander Wirakorn Nakorntong, he tells how his men had holed up for several nights in the densely forested border area between Myanmar and Thailand in an area that was probably used as a smuggling route.

At four o'clock in the morning, a Myanmar drug caravan is trapped and an exchange of gunfire ensues in which five drug couriers are killed. Their armed escorts manage to escape. Half a million methamphetamine pills that the porters carried in plastic bags on their backs were seized.

The capture is a new record by the Pha Mueng military anti-drug task force in Chiangrai, which guards the border area near the Golden Triangle. Numerous drug labs are hidden in the difficult to access mountain area, just across the border in Myanmar. The drug cartels that operate there are heavily armed and have free rein.

The result is a deluge of drugs that are sent into the world via surrounding countries. Intercepting drugs is the only thing Thai soldiers can do. Aided by cameras and satellite images, the soldiers patrol day and night in groups of six along a border covering a length of 342 kilometers.

According to the United Nations Anti-Drug Trafficking Agency (UNODC), drug seizures have increased again after a short decrease during the corona period. In 2022, 151 tons of methamphetamine were seized in Southeast Asia, of which 112,5 tons were seized by Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. Most drugs are in pill form. According to estimates, three to six billion pills will be smuggled via Thailand in 2021 to Australia, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, among others. It's about amphetamine pills, in Thailand yabaa named. The Asian synthetic drug trade is estimated to be around $61 billion annually.

Thai soldiers patrolling the border can do little more than exercise control. Presumably there is a drug lab barely a kilometer across the border, but of course it is not accessible to Thai soldiers in Myanmar.

Most synthetic drugs come from the region where the Shan people live. It is a semi-autonomous area in Myanmar and in the hands of armed groups from the Shan community. The loads simply cross the border on foot, by riverboat and trucks. “As long as Myanmar's Shan region is not under control, the drugs will keep coming,” said Colonel Natee Timsean, commander of the task force from his military compound on the border.

Further telling: “Just across the border in Laos, near the border triangle with Thailand and Myanmar, the casino complex Kings Romans has risen in a special economic zone. Its owner is Chinese mafia boss Zhao Wei, who is deep in drug trafficking and money laundering, according to international crime-fighting organizations. The casino would act as a transit port. China could put an end to these practices because Laos can do nothing about it. The Chinese have total control and even their own armed security. Thus: Timsean the commander of the Thai task force.

Zhao Wei has an agreement with the Laotian government in which he has stipulated full control of this free trade zone. It is the place where wealthy Chinese come to spend their holidays and nothing is put in their way.

The border region in Thailand looks like a war zone. Police checkpoints line the thoroughfares, villages are visited by army patrols, smuggling trails are cordoned off with barbed wire and cameras monitor roads. In the remote mountain village of Pha Mee in nearby Mai Sai district, residents have become accustomed to the military presence. The village of Pha Mee is traditionally an opium production area. Most of the inhabitants belong to the Akha community who grew poppy on the mountain slopes, so in fact they grew opium. In 1970, King Bhumibol came to visit and thanks to his arrival and help, poppy was replaced by coffee cultivation. The village now lives from coffee and tourism. Unfortunately, opium production has not disappeared and poppies are still grown here and there.

So far for this article I have partly drawn from the story of Saskia Konniger in the NRC of July 3, 2023.

I have been to this region many times and have always fully enjoyed the beautiful nature around Doi Mae Salong. Bought packs of coffee in Pha Mee to take home as the taste was so exquisite. With my rental car I had to stop several times at road intersections and show my papers and answer questions. Thought it was a strange idea at the time.

At the time I had no idea about poppy production, much less any thought about what was going on across the border in Myanmar. My visits to the border town of Mae Sai are still fresh in my memory. Always the same hotel directly on the border from which I walked to the border on foot to go to the nice and very different market in Myanmar directly across the border and back the same day because of the one-day visa. The now 88-year-old looks back on it with great satisfaction. Never has the thought of drugs ever crossed my mind. Until 25 years ago I was addicted to a good cigar and currently still in moderation to a nice glass of wine.

I have a bad feeling about discrimination. Over the years I visited various tribes, including the Shan and Akha community. If you let the drug story of the Shan in Myanmar sink in now, then we also have to realize that many years earlier during the colonial era, the British were busy with the production of opium in the same region. The French also participated nicely in that period and China was and still is a major customer. But when I look at the situation Israel versus the Palestinians right now, my mind also stops. Not to mention many other idiots on our planet.

The news was also full of our slavery past. Apologies from the government and the king apologized for his family's role in it. Better late than never.

Let's keep thinking positive and enjoy life!

The past is history from another time. We write it now and whether our descendants will be satisfied with it later remains the question.