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Covid-19 grounded planes, so drug traffickers in Southeast Asia took to the seas: new report
- A record 170 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized in the region last year, up 19 per cent from 2019, despite coronavirus travel restrictions
- According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 71 per cent of the drugs came from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam
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Jitsiree Thongnoiin Bangkok
A new United Nations report has outlined how drug-related crime organisations in Southeast Asia have expanded beyond the Golden Triangle, with traffickers increasingly turning to maritime routes amid Covid-19 restrictions on air travel.
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A record 170 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized in the region last year, up 19 per cent from 2019, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime regional coordinator Inshik Sim said during a Thursday briefing in Bangkok. He added that 71 per cent of the drugs seized came from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam.
“All these countries in the lower Mekong, except Vietnam, seized record quantities of methamphetamine despite Covid-19,” he said.
The report, titled “Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia: latest developments and challenges 2021”, said that while Thailand once again recorded the largest volume of methamphetamine seized in East and Southeast Asia, seizures in Myanmar also increased markedly.
However, Sim said the pandemic’s impact on the drug trade was short lived as organised crime quickly adapted to new border controls, which led to a rebound in supplies in late May last year. However, there had been some changes in approach.
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