Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
Mekong Rivers, view from Wat Phra That Doi Pu Khao in Ban Sop Ruak | |
Continent | Southeast Asia |
---|---|
Region | Myanmar, Thailand, Laos |
Coordinates | 20°21′20″N 100°04′53″E / 20.35556°N 100.08139°E |
The Golden Triangle is a large, mountainous region of approximately 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi)
The Golden Triangle has been one of the largest
In 2023, Myanmar became the world’s largest producer of opium after an estimated 1,080 t (1,060 long tons; 1,190 short tons) of the drug was produced, according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report,[10] while a crackdown by the Taliban reduced opium production by approximately 95% to 330 t (320 long tons; 360 short tons) in Afghanistan for the same year.[11]
Geography
The following districts make up the approximate geographical area of the Golden Triangle:[12][13]
Myanmar | Thailand | Laos |
---|---|---|
Shan State | Chiang Mai | Luang Namtha |
Chiang Rai | Bokèo | |
Mae Hong Son | Luang Prabang | |
Phayao | Oudomxay | |
Lampang | Phongsaly | |
Lamphun | Houaphan
| |
Nan | Xiangkhoang
| |
Phrae |
Origin
In the late 1940s, as the Chinese Communist Party gained power, it ordered ten million addicts into compulsory treatment, had dealers executed, and opium-producing regions planted with new crops. Consequently, opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region.[14] Small-scale opium production in Myanmar dated back to the Konbaung dynasty in 1750, chiefly for the consumption of foreigners.[15]
The Chinese troops of the Kuomintang in Burma (KMT) were in effect the forebears of the private narcotic armies operating in the Golden Triangle. In 1949, thousands of the defeated Kuomintang troops crossed over the border from Yunnan Province into Burma, a nation with a weak government, and the Kuomintang seized control of the border regions of Burma. Almost all of the KMT opium was sent south to Thailand.[16] The KMT-controlled territories made up Burma's major opium-producing region, and the shift in KMT policy allowed them to expand their control over the region's opium trade. Furthermore, Communist China's eradication of illicit opium cultivation in Yunnan by the early 1950s effectively handed the opium monopoly to the KMT army in the Shan State. The main consumers of the drug were the local ethnic Chinese and those across the border in Yunnan and the rest of Southeast Asia. They coerced the local villagers for recruits, food and money, and exacted a heavy tax on the opium farmers. That forced the farmers to increase their production to make ends meet. One American missionary to the Lahu people of Kengtung State testified that the KMT tortured the Lahu for failing to comply with their regulations.[citation needed]
Annual production increased 20 times, from 30 tons at the time of Burmese independence to 600 t (590 long tons; 660 short tons) in the mid-1950s.[17]
History of heroin production
Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of
The surrender of drug lord
In 1996, the United States Embassy in Rangoon released a "Country Commercial Guide", which states "Exports of opiates alone appear to be worth about as much as all legal exports." It goes on to say that investments in infrastructure and hotels are coming from major opiate-growing and opiate-exporting organizations and from those with close ties to these organizations.[19]
A four-year investigation concluded that
Heroin processing in Southeast Asia
In 1992, the United States Department of Justice released a report detailing the typical process in which raw opium extracted from poppy plants is converted to morphine and then to heroin:[22]
- an average Golden Triangle opium farmer will plant an area of 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) (which would produce an average of 50,000 poppy plants) towards the end of the traditional wet season in September, which will allow harvesting to begin in February of the following year when the plant has matured. About two weeks after the flower petals fall from the now swollen pods, the farmer will use a tool with 3 or 4 blades to make 1 mm (0.039 in) deep diagonal incisions in each pod. This is done usually in the afternoon so that the white latex-like raw opium can ooze out onto the surface of the pod overnight.
- the farmer then scrapes the secretion off each pod with a curved tool and places it into a container. This is repeated up to six times until the pod is depleted and stops leaking fluid. Each pod will yield an average of 80 mg (1.2 gr) of raw opium, with the 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) field producing an average of between 4 and 8 kg (8.8 and 17.6 lb) in total.
- the collected opium contains a high percentage of water, so the farmer will dry it in the hot sun for several days as its value increases due to less water weight per kilogram and then cut into standard sized 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) blocks and wrap in plastic ready for sale to opium traders.
- to convert the opium to morphine, approximately 15 kilograms of raw opium is added to 30 gallons of water in a 55 gallon metal oil drum. A fire is lit under the drum and the solution is brought to the boil. After the opium has dissolved, non-soluble materials (such as plant twigs) float to the top and are scooped out. pH level to 9, and the liquid is then left to cool for a couple of hours. The morphine base will gradually precipitate out of the solution and settle to the bottom of the pot. The liquid is then poured off through a filter and any chunks collected are added back into the pot. The remaining solids are then scraped out and left to dry in the sun until they turn into a coffee-colored powder, and what is left at the end of this process is a crude morphine base. This is then dissolved in hydrochloric acid, then boiled and filtered several times before being pressed into 1.3 kilogram bricks, which are then transported down from the highlands to heroin-processing laboratories.
- the morphine hydrochloride bricks are broken up into powder and then placed in a pot with diacetylmorphine. Water is then added, along with charcoal, and after stirring, the liquid is strained out through a filter into a new container. Sodium carbonateis dissolved in hot water and then added slowly, which causes the heroin base to precipitate to the bottom of the container. This is then filtered out and dried in a steam bath for an hour. For every 455 g (16.0 oz) of morphine, approximately 311 g (11.0 oz) of crude heroin base can be extracted. This is then sent to a heroin-refining laboratory.
- Heroin Number 3 is created by mixing crude heroin base with hydrochloric acid, resulting in heroin hydrochloride, which is less than 40% pure and is typically consumed locally by smoking. Adulterants such as caffeine or quinine are added in a one to one ratio, and the wet paste is stirred to dryness over a steam bath. The resulting dry Heroin Number 3 will be in the form of dark brown coarse lumps, which are transferred into 1 kilogram plastic bags and then sold onto wholesale traffickers.
- Heroin Number 4, which is high quality (over 80% pure) and is typically exported abroad for consumption by drug injection, is created by mixing crude heroin base with water and acetic anhydride. After stirring, a small amount of chloroform is added. After about 20 minutes, impurities will sink to the bottom of the pot and a red greasy layer will float to the top, and the light yellow water layer in the middle is carefully poured off into a clean container. Charcoal is stirred in, and the liquid is then poured out through a filter into a new, clean pot, and this process is repeated until the liquid becomes clear. Sodium carbonate is dissolved in hot water and then added slowly, which causes the heroin base to precipitate to the bottom of the container. This is filtered out and dried in a steam bath for an hour. The resulting dry Heroin Number 4 will be in the form of a very white, fine powder, which is then pressed into 350 g (12 oz) blocks and wrapped in plastic.[23] These are then sold onto wholesale traffickers.
In the same year, the U.S. Department of Justice published a separate report with estimated prices for Southeast Asian heroin at various stages from point of production to final street sale: [22]
Product | Location | Purity | Estimated Price |
---|---|---|---|
Raw Opium | Shan State | 100% | $120 to $200 per kilogram |
Morphine Base | Thai - Burma border | 100% | $1,000 per kilogram |
Heroin Base | Chang Mai |
100% | $3,520 to $4,400 per kilogram |
Heroin | Chang Mai | 90% to 70% | $4,000 to $4,900 per kilogram |
Heroin | Bangkok | 90% to 70% | $6,000 to $11,000 per kilogram |
Heroin | U.S.A (wholesale) | 90% to 70% | $90,000 to $240,000 per kilogram |
Heroin | U.S.A (mid level) | 80% to 30% | $100,000 to $600,000 per kilogram |
Heroin | U.S.A (street level) | 60% to 20% | $100,000 to $1,000,000 per kilogram |
Historical drug trafficking
1970s
After hearing about
In 1972, traditional European supply routes for American-consumed heroin were disrupted after Turkey banned the growing of opium poppies, which led to an increase in production in South East Asia.[27] With an existing Triad organized crime infrastructure to service a large local population of addicts (consisting of an estimated 150,000 regular users[28]), combined with its busy international Port of Hong Kong and Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong soon became an important transit point for Southeast Asian heroin,[29] as well as convenient money laundering center to reinvest the profits of international sales.[30][31] Crime groups also used the city state as a location to process opium into refined heroin, with a syndicate controlled by Ma Sik-chun estimated by the authorities to have imported over 700 tonnes of opium into Hong Kong between 1968 and 1974.[32]
In the mid 1970s, a organized crime gang headed by Roland Tan and composed mainly of Singaporean Chinese traffickers known as the Ah Kong took control of the European heroin trade by smuggling heroin using couriers via airplane from Thailand and Malaysia to their headquarters in Amsterdam, where it was then distributed to other major cities in western Europe.[33][34] So successful were the gang that they muscled in on and ultimately took over the European territory of the 14K and Wo Shing Wo groups of triads.[35]
Heroin from Southeast Asia was originally brought to the United States by couriers, typically Thai and U.S. nationals, travelling on commercial airlines. Despite its strict drug laws, Singapore was often used as a transit point, [36] as traffickers believed foreign law enforcement agencies would be less stringent in checking passengers on arrival if their flight departed from Singapore.[37] California and Hawaii were the primary U.S. entry points for Golden Triangle heroin, but small percentages of the drug were also trafficked into New York City and Washington, D.C. While Southeast Asian groups had success in trafficking heroin to the United States, they initially had difficulty arranging street level distribution. However, with the incarceration of Asian traffickers in American prisons during the 1970s, contacts between Asian and American prisoners developed. These contacts have allowed Southeast Asian traffickers access to gangs and organizations distributing heroin at the retail level.[38]
1980s
In the 1980s, after traditional American Mafia groups were substantially weakened by a series of Mafia Commission Trials, ethnic Chinese traffickers gradually took over the dominant role in the heroin supply on the East Coast of the United States. A Drug Enforcement Administration study identified the source of the heroin sold on the streets of New York: from 1982 to 1987, the percentage of Southeast Asian heroin rose from 3 percent to more than 40 percent of the market supply.[39] As demand grew, Asian criminal organizations began trafficking large shipments of high purity heroin hidden amongst legitimate seaborne cargo to the United States of America. Notable incidents included:
- the February 1988 seizure of 1,280 kilograms of 97% pure heroin hidden in bales of rubber sheets on a New York City bound freighter at Khlong Toei Port in Bangkok, with an estimated street price of $2 billion, was the world’s largest single heroin seizure at the time.[40]
- in February 1989, a U.S. record amount was seized when FBI agents in New York City raided a warehouse and discovered 380 kilograms of uncut heroin (with an estimated street price of $1 billion) hidden in lawn-mower tires, which authorities believed were shipped from Hong Kong to Los Angeles before being trucked to the New York area.[41]
- in early September 1989, the largest heroin seizure in the history of British Hong Kong occurred when narcotics agents raided an apartment in the Sai Kung District of the New Territories and discovered 420 kilograms of 99% pure heroin, worth an estimated $420 million, packed into 30 travel bags. The drugs were believed to have originated in Thailand before being smuggled by sea to Hong Kong, where they were then transferred to a local fishing junk and afterwards brought to shore via speedboat. Police believed the haul was ultimately destined for the United States or Australia[42][43]
- a new U.S. record was achieved in June 1991 when authorities seized 545 kilograms of high quality heroin (with an estimated street price of $3 billion) concealed in boxes of plastic bags from a warehouse in Hayward, California. The shipment was originally smuggled from Thailand to the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan within two shipping containers, then placed aboard a ship and brought to the Port of Oakland.[44][45]
1990s
Although Nigeria had traditionally been used by foreign organized crime groups as a transit point for narcotics and as a source of drug mules,
Present day drug trafficking
The Chinese Muslim
A Panthay from Burma, Ma Zhengwen, assisted the Han Chinese drug lord Khun Sa in selling his heroin in north Thailand.[59]: 306 The Panthay monopolized opium trafficking in Burma.[59]: 57 They also created secret drug routes to reach the international market with contacts to smuggle drugs from Burma via south China.[59]: 400In 2023, Myanmar overtook Afghanistan as the world’s biggest producer of opium, after a ban on poppy cultivation by
Methamphetamine production and trafficking
"The Golden Triangle, and specifically Shan State of Myanmar, is believed to be the largest methamphetamine producing area in the world (modest sized geographic area with highly concentrated production)." The growing signs of an intensification of methamphetamine manufacturing activity within and around the Golden Triangle, and a corresponding decrease in the number of production facilities dismantled in other parts of the region, suggests that methamphetamine manufacture in East and Southeast Asia is now consolidated into the lower Mekong region.[64] Countries in East and Southeast Asia have collectively witnessed sustained increases in seizures of methamphetamine over the last decade, totalling over 171 tons and a record of over 1 billion methamphetamine tablets in 2021 according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, more than any other part of the world.[65] In April and May 2020, Myanmar authorities reported Asia's largest ever drug operation in Shan State totalling what was believed to be 193 million methamphetamine tablets, hundreds of kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine as well as some heroin, and over 162,000 litres and 35.5 tons of drug precursors as well as sophisticated production equipment and several staging and storage facilities.[66]
See also
References
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- S2CID 149244027. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Golden Triangle". Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-674-05134-8.)
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- ^ a b "Afghanistan again tops list of illegal drug producers". Washington Times. 2013.Archived 6 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Myanmar Opium Survey 2021: Cultivation, Production and Implications (Report). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2022.
- ^ "Myanmar's Economic Meltdown Likely to Push Opium Output Up, Says UN". Voa News. 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- ^ Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023 (PDF) (Report). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar becomes world's biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan". The Guardian. 2023.
- ^ "Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Evolution, Growth and Impact" (PDF). UNODC. June 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
- ^ "Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2015 - Lao PDR & Myanmar" (PDF). UNODC. November 2015.
- ^ Alfred W. McCoy. "Opium History, 1858 to 1940". Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
- ISBN 9781134253937.
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- ^ Lintner, B. (1992). "Heroin and Highland Insurgency in the Golden Triangle". War on Drugs: Studies in the failure of US narcotic policy. Boulder, Colorado: Westview. p. 288.
- ^ "Facts and figures showing the reduction of opium cultivation and production were not gathered by the government of Myanmar, but UNODC in cooperation with local police forces and anti-drug squads. Information Committee of State Peace and Development Council holds Press Conference No 7/2005". Embassy of the Union of Myanmar in South Africa. 2005. Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Bernstein, D.; Kean, L. (1996). "People of the Opiate: Myanmar's dictatorship of drugs". The Nation. 263 (20): 11–15. Archived from the original on 1 June 2004. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
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- ^ (February 2020). "Myanmar Opium Survey: cultivation, production and implications". UNODC.
- ^ a b c Office of Intelligence and Heroin Investigations Section (1992). Worldwide Heroin Situation 1991 (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration.
- ^ "AFP seizes 336 kilograms of heroin in largest ever Queensland detection". Australian Federal Police press release. 2023.
- ^ "The Return of Superfly". New York. 2000. Archived from the original on 25 May 2006. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
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- ^ Jacobson, M. (2007). "A Conversation Between Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes – Money 2007 – New York Magazine". New York. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
- ^ "The heroin smugglers will have to go East". The Straits Times. 15 July 1971.
- ^ "Hong Kong now key centre in opium traffic". New Nation. 17 August 1972.
- ^ "New blitz on drugs". New Nation. 1976.
- ^ "Hong Kong underworld moving to America". Singapore Monitor. 1985.
- ^ "Hongkong the centre of S-E Asia drug traffic". The Strait Times. 1983.
- ^ "ACAN in the 21st Century - A Continuing Challenge" (PDF). Narcotics Division, Security Bureau. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ "How CNB helped to crack world drug ring". The Straits Times. 1982.
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- ^ "World drug ring cracked". The Straits Times. 1978.
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- ^ "Chinese now dominate New York heroin trade". The New York Times. 1987.
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- ^ "Asian Drug Ring Crushed in N.Y. Record Cache of 838 Pounds of Heroin Is Seized". The Los Angeles Times. 1989.
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- ^ "Hong Kong police make huge heroin bust". UPI. 1989.
- ^ "Largest Heroin Bust in U.S. Is Reported, Drugs About 1,200 pounds are seized at Hayward warehouse. Four suspects are arrested". The Los Angeles Times. 1991.
- ^ "Heroin from major U.S. drug bust shipped through Taiwan". UPI. 1991.
- ^ "West Africa Becomes Route for Heroin Trade". The New York Times. 1987.
- ^ "Nigerian Connection Floods U.S. Airports With Asian Heroin". The New York Times. 1992.
- ^ "Out of Africa: The drug trail". The Strait Times. 1991.
- ^ "Nigeria takes steps to halt drug smuggling by citizens". The Straits Times. 1992.
- ^ "Visa application for Nigerian nationals". Royal Thai Embassy. London.
- ^ "Foiled: Nigerian's plan to use S'pore as base to recruit drug couriers". The Straits Times. 1991.
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- ^ Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Evolution, Growth and Challenges (Report). UNODC. 2019.
- ^ "The Man Accused of Running the Biggest Drug Trafficking Syndicate in Asia's History has Been Revealed: Here's What Needs To Happen Next". CNN. 2019.
- ^ Smith, N. (2019). "Drugs investigators close in on Asian 'El Chapo' at centre of vast meth ring". The Telegraph. London.
- ^ Douglas, J. (2018). "Parts of Asia are slipping into the hands of organized crime". CNN.
- ^ Forbes, A. & Henley, D. (2011). Traders of the Golden Triangle. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books.
- ^ ISBN 974-7100-78-9.
- ^ Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2023 (PDF) (Report). UNODC. 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar becomes world's biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan". The Guardian. 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar is now world's largest source of opium, UN says". Reuters. 2023.
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- ^ Douglas, Jeremy (15 November 2018). "Parts of Asia are slipping into the hands of organized crime". CNN.
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- ^ "Huge fentanyl haul seized in Asia's biggest-ever drugs bust". Reuters. 18 May 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
External links
- Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia) travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Media related to Mekong Golden Triangle at Wikimedia Commons
- Geopium: Geopolitics of Illicit Drugs in Asia. Geopium.org (since 1998) is the personal website of Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, CNRS Research Fellow in Paris.
- Kramer, Tom, Martin Jelsma, and Tom Blickman. Withdrawal Symptoms in the Golden Triangle: A Drugs Market in Disarray. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, January 2009. ISBN 978-90-71007-22-4.
- "The Golden Triangle Opium Trade: An Overview" by Bertil Lintner, Chiang Mai, March 2000
- UNODC. "Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Evolution, Growth and Impact". UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, June 2019.