China says Southeast Asia’s lawless ‘Golden Triangle’ main source of most dangerous drugs
Government finds 90 per cent of heroin and methamphetamine seized in 2014 produced in region, including parts of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, that borders Yunnan province
Southeast Asia’s lawless “Golden Triangle” region remains the overwhelming source of the heroin and methamphetamine sold in China, the nation's Cabinet says.
A Cabinet report published on Wednesday said 90 per cent of the 9.3 tonnes of heroin and 11.4 tonnes of methamphetamine seized in 2014 was produced in the region that includes parts of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and borders China’s southern province of Yunnan.
In contrast, heroin from the Golden Crescent region, which includes Afghanistan, the world’s biggest opium producer, accounted for less than 2 per cent of the drug seized in China, it said.
“From an overseas perspective, the Golden Triangle continues to be for China the most dangerous drug-producing region,” said the report, the government’s first comprehensive look at drug use in China.
The report underscores the persistence of the regional threat, despite China’s efforts to boost cross-border cooperation to crack down on the rebel armies and criminal gangs that run the drug trade in the mountainous area along the Mekong River.
China began running joint river patrols with Thailand, Laos and Myanmar following an attack on two Chinese cargo boats on the Mekong in 2011 that resulted in the massacre of their 13 crew members.