UN Workplace on Medicine and Crime says ‘explosive progress’ in artificial drug commerce led to document seizures of methamphetamine in East and Southeast Asia in 2024.
Drug manufacturing and trafficking has surged within the notorious “Golden Triangle“, the place the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, the United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC) has warned in a brand new report on the size of the regional commerce in artificial medication.
The UNODC mentioned a document 236 tonnes of methamphetamine had been seized final yr within the East and Southeast Asia areas, marking a 24 p.c enhance within the quantity of the narcotic seized in contrast with the earlier yr.
Whereas Thailand became the first country within the area to grab greater than 100 tonnes of methamphetamine in a single yr final yr – interdicting a complete of 130 tonnes – trafficking of the drug from Myanmar’s lawless Shan State is rapidly expanding in Laos and Cambodia, the UNODC mentioned.
“The 236 tons characterize solely the quantity seized; far more methamphetamine is definitely reaching the market,” the UNODC’s performing regional consultant for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Benedikt Hofmann, mentioned in a press release.
“Whereas these seizures mirror, partially, profitable legislation enforcement efforts, we’re clearly seeing unprecedented ranges of methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking from the Golden Triangle, specifically Shan State,” Hofmann mentioned.
Transnational drug gangs working in East and Southeast Asia are additionally exhibiting “outstanding agility” in countering makes an attempt by regional legislation enforcement to crack down on the booming commerce in artificial medication.
Myanmar’s grinding civil conflict, which erupted in mid-2021, has additionally offered beneficial circumstances for an expansion of the drug trade.
“For the reason that navy takeover in Myanmar in February 2021, flows of medicine from the nation have surged throughout not solely East and Southeast Asia, but additionally more and more into South Asia, specifically Northeast India,” the report states.
The UNODC’s Inshik Sim, the lead analyst for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, mentioned international locations neighbouring Myanmar have gotten key trafficking routes for medication produced within the Golden Triangle.
“The trafficking route connecting Cambodia with Myanmar, primarily by Laos PDR, has been quickly increasing,” Sim mentioned, utilizing the acronym that’s a part of Laos’s official identify, the Individuals’s Democratic Republic.
“One other more and more vital hall entails maritime trafficking routes linking Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with Sabah in Malaysia serving as a key transit hub,” he mentioned.
Evolving, cell-based transnational organized crime teams based mostly in East and #SoutheastAsia are more and more adopting applied sciences throughout all the drug provide chain whereas converging with different organized crime actions.
Learn extra in our newest report: https://t.co/oL416cuZJ3 pic.twitter.com/pqUfX5FmnF
— UNODC Southeast Asia-Pacific (@UNODC_SEAP) May 28, 2025
The UNODC report additionally notes that whereas most international locations within the area have reported an total enhance in the usage of methamphetamine and ketamine – a strong sedative – the variety of drug customers within the older age group has grown in some nations.
“Some international locations within the area, similar to Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, have reported consecutive will increase within the variety of older drug customers, whereas the variety of youthful customers has declined,” the UNODC report states, including that the age development wanted to be studied additional.
The UNODC’s Hofmann mentioned the decline within the variety of youthful drug customers admitted for therapy could also be on account of focused drug use prevention campaigns.
“Will probably be key for the area to extend funding in each prevention and provide discount methods,” he added.
