Methamphetamines valuing more than $100M was confiscated by policemen in Yangon, Myanmar during their by-bust operation.
According to the Burmese authorities, they have found almost 27 million tablets packed in 88 plastic sacks in a white KIA truck parked on Oeain Street near Zaygabar housing in Mingalardone.
Police believed that the seized pills have a street value of K133 billion ($106.4 million) and it’s the largest seizure of narcotics in the country’s history. The previous record seizure in terms of value came in August 2014, when security forces seized 2.4 million Ecstasy pills valued at $17 million in Taninthyari region.
Police Captain Win Myint, who led the operation, said that police is carrying out its legal duties as a number of suspects are being interviewed but no one is arrested yet. All available officers are hunting for the traffickers and owners of the drugs.
Last month, the government officials staged a bonfire of seized illicit drugs worth millions of dollars on the UN’s International Day against Drug abuse.
Myanmar is ranked world’s second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan and producing about 25 % of the world’s opium. It also forms part of the notorious opium producing Golden Triangle along with neighboring countries Thailand and Laos.
In recent years, Methamphetamine production and use has been on the rise in the region.
These pills, also known as “ya ba” literally means crazy medicine, are often made in jungle labs in Myanmar. These labs are in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), who is an ally of Myanmar ruling junta.
In the year 2010 alone, about 1 billion “ya ba” tablets were reported to have successfully smuggled to the neighboring Thailand.
Methamphetamine is a Central Nervous System (CNS) stimulant and known as a recreational drug due to its ability to alter the state of consciousness. It is being abused due to its tendency to elevate mood and increase concentration, energy and sexual arousal.
Myanmar’s border regions are well known across Southeast Asia as a major source of stimulant tablet production. Analysts believed that the pills are smuggled from Myanmar via Laos to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. IMAGE/teakdoor.com
