January 6, 2025
SINGAPORE – Record seizures of synthetic drugs in East and South-east Asia have set off alarm bells, as reports emerge of heightened production in Myanmar amid the chaos of civil war.
There is growing concern that organised crime syndicates are slashing prices of methamphetamine, Ecstasy, ketamine and yaba, a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine, to move more illicit products in the region.
Shan State in Myanmar is known as the leading source of synthetic drugs in the region, while Thailand is a major transit route for illicit drugs from the so-called Golden Triangle region where the north of the kingdom, Laos and Myanmar meet.
A 2024 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report showed that the authorities in Thailand in 2023 seized 648.9 million yaba tablets and 26.4 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as Ice, compared with 395 million yaba tablets and 17.6 tonnes of Ice in 2019.
Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) told The Straits Times the situation in the kingdom is worse now than in 2019, when ST travelled to Thailand’s northern Chiang Rai province to investigate the impact of drug smuggling at the Thailand-Myanmar border.
South-east Asia was then the largest and fastest-growing meth market in the world, with seizures rising more than eightfold between 2007 and 2017.
ONCB told ST that the Thai authorities had seized 488 million yaba tablets and almost 10 tonnes of Ice along the Thailand-Myanmar border in 2024 as at September.
Said the drug enforcement agency: “Ice is having a swing in the last three years… We can see some smuggling into southern Thailand to be distributed to third countries.”
It added that the ongoing civil war in Myanmar has allowed organised crime syndicates to increase manufacturing capacity, with “the potential to produce an infinite amount of drugs”.
According to the UNODC report, methamphetamine (in tablet, crystal and other forms) seized in East and South-east Asia rose from about 140 tonnes in 2019 to 190 tonnes in 2023, the highest amount recorded for the region.
The report added that organised crime groups are lowering the production costs and scaling up production by using non-controlled chemicals.
The gangs are also producing synthetic drugs with a higher purity, making them more lethal.
“With scaled-up production, shipments involving over one tonne of drugs have become more frequent, which in turn leads to further price drops as availability and affordability increase,” said UNODC.
The UNODC report showed that wholesale prices for crystal meth fell from between US$10,000 (about S$13,400) and US$12,000 per kg in 2019, to a record low of between US$4,000 and US$7,000 in 2023 for countries such as Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.
SOURCE: UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME; GRAPHICS: THE STRAITS TIMES
Trafficking by sea
In 2019, ST learnt that smugglers commonly used the porous Myanmar-Thailand border to move drugs through land routes.
As Myanmar’s neighbours increased operations in the Golden Triangle, organised crime syndicates adapted and tapped maritime routes.
The UNODC in its report said that organised crime groups were increasingly linking land-based trafficking corridors and maritime routes to escalate maritime trafficking of high-volume shipments, such as the route to the Gulf of Thailand, which crosses several land borders in the lower Mekong region.
In 2023, the Thai authorities seized more than 900kg of crystal meth from a trawler in the Gulf of Thailand and arrested six crew members.
The UNODC report said: “Throughout 2023 and into early 2024, large shipments of over one tonne of methamphetamine, often alongside ketamine, have been seized en route to or on maritime routes.”
The situation is unlikely to improve any time soon with Shan State, which borders Thailand, China and Laos, locked in armed conflict.
In recent years, especially after the 2021 military coup against the elected government in Myanmar, the state has become the epicentre for meth production in East and South-east Asia.
Shan State, which covers a land area of 155,800 sq km, is held by rebel groups locked in a civil war with the military junta.
Myanmar’s war on drugs has seen little success due to conflict, with the authorities struggling to monitor and target meth super labs in the state.
The UNODC report said that, since 2020, the authorities in Myanmar have managed to dismantle only “smaller methamphetamine tableting operations in areas of South Shan, which does not reflect the total supply of methamphetamine originating from the drug producing regions of Shan”.
In a rare admission, the head of Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control said in a June 2023 report that its efforts to crush the multibillion-dollar drug trade were having no impact.
“Even though countless drug abusers, producers, traffickers and cartels were arrested and prosecuted, the production and trafficking of drugs have not declined at all,” Mr Soe Htut told the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
The head of Myanmar’s military government revealed in November 2023 that a major offensive in the country’s north-east by an alliance of armed ethnic minority organisations was funded in part by profits earned by one of the groups from the region’s lucrative drug trade.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said his government was surprised by fierce fighting in several towns in the country’s north-eastern border region.
Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said it is concerned about the drug situation in the region.
A spokesman said: “Given Singapore’s vulnerability to the threat of drug trafficking due to its transnational nature, Singapore continues to play a role in committing resources to efforts such as regional information sharing partnerships.”
The drug enforcement agency said it actively participates in international and regional efforts for information sharing and operations.
These include being part of the Asean Airport and Seaport Interdiction task forces, which provide platforms for enforcement agencies to collaborate and stop drug trafficking in the region.
The agency also works closely with overseas counterparts to share intelligence, resulting in significant arrests and seizures both locally and overseas over the past years.
CNB said the drug situation in Singapore is relatively well managed compared with other countries, and added that enforcement remains strong.
A CNB report earlier in 2024 showed the amount of Ice seized was down 13.4 per cent in 2023, while yaba was down 91.5 per cent.
Seizures of Ecstasy tablets fell 1.56 per cent between 2022 and 2023, but rose 184.8 per cent in weight. Ketamine seizures spiked by about 50 per cent in weight and 94.5 per cent in tablets.
More Ice abusers
According to CNB figures, about half, or 1,621 abusers, arrested in 2023, had used meth. In 2022, the authorities arrested 1,451 meth abusers.
The synthetic drug is also increasingly being used by new and young abusers.
Out of 952 new abusers arrested in 2023, 599 had abused methamphetamine, a 19 per cent increase from the previous year’s figures.
The number of meth users arrested below the age of 20 increased 11 per cent in 2023 from 2022.
Recovered drug user Francis How, who talks to students, national servicemen, teachers and inmates about the perils of drug use and gang membership, told ST that the majority of residents at the two halfway houses and church where he volunteers were caught for abusing meth.
Mr How, 50, said: “Some of the young people were misled into thinking that Ice helps them focus and do things better. That’s a lie.”
Mr Andrew Da Roza, a psychotherapist specialising in addictions in Singapore, worries that an increase in the availability of drugs may result in a health crisis.
“With increased supply, you would expect to see more new users, and existing users buying increased doses of the drug,” said Mr Da Roza.
“This may lead to a public health crisis – as the numbers of those needing medical and drug recovery resources increase.”
But senior consultant psychiatrist Munidasa Winslow said the authorities in Singapore can manage despite a regional surge in drug production.
Dr Winslow said: “Overall, our system is robust enough to handle price drops because the principle is not just the price, but the fact that you will pay a penalty for using (drugs) no matter what the price is.”
Those caught consuming meth, ketamine and Ecstasy can be jailed for up to 10 years, and face a maximum fine of $20,000.
A person may face the death penalty for trafficking more than 250g of meth.
Those guilty of trafficking ketamine or Ecstasy may be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.
- Zaihan Mohamed Yusof is senior crime correspondent at The Straits Times