Here's my piece on the largest meth bust *ever* and its complex backstory — involving double-crossing militia, Chinese mafia and even the White House. https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-06-10/massive-asian-drug-bust-has-stirred-fentanyl-mystery

The thing about these Myanmar super labs — everyone knew they were there. The army, the cops, the DEA, indigenous groups, Chinese intelligence.

I was writing about the labs' existence in that area five years ago.

It wasn't a secret. (1/11)

https://gpinvestigations.pri.org/myanmars-state-backed-militias-are-flooding-asia-with-meth-558fa7f9ac53

Let's break down how meth labs are set up in Myanmar.

First you need a place to put the lab.

Best if it's close to the Chinese border — so you can easily smuggle in raw chemical ingredients.

Also good if it's near a stream. Cooking meth creates lots of waste. (2/11)

Most importantly, you want a place that won't be raided.

So the ideal lab is placed inside turf run by a militia that's cozy w/ the army.

There are many dozens of these in Myanmar. They vow to fend off rebels — for free! — and, in return, the government leaves them alone (3/11)

Myanmar has been hashing out these deals with militia since the 1960s.

I spoke to a former secretary to Khun Sa, once the world's largest opium/heroin producer.

He said, at times, Khun Sa would buddy up w/ the army — and that meant his operation was raid-proof.

(4/11)

So now your militia has a pact w/ the army. You've got some remote patch of land plus 500 men with rifles.

Great place for a lab!

But none of your guys know chemistry. Or how to work reactor vessels. Or the phenyl-2-propanone method for cooking meth.

You need help. (5/11)

This is where outside investors come in — almost always from China.

They'll come in. Build the lab. Smuggle in the chemists. Cook the meth. Then traffic it on the global market.

The militia's job is to keep them safe — from government raids or from bandits. (6/11)

This is a defining dynamic of the Myanmar drug trade.

The lab sits on land run by an armed group — but they're mostly just landlords.

They rent space to outside syndicates that handle the labs/chemistry and foreign exports.

This second group rakes in most of the money. (7/11)

One reason I'm writing this:

There's an off chance that Myanmar *might* become a new fentanyl pipeline to the US — helping replace China, which has indeed cracked down under White House pressure.

But heavy US meddling in Myanmar would just make things more messy.

(8/11)

Myanmar's drug trade is 50 times more complex than what I've just described. Any heavy-handed US campaign against Myanmar would almost certainly go wrong.

To be frank, this is beyond the sophistication of US policy makers.

(9/11)

Right now, meth is the most popular narcotic in Asia — and I think it'll stay that way and keep Myanmar's labs meth-focused for the foreseeable future.

Let's hope fentanyl production/trafficking never takes off there.

It's so much more likely to kill you than meth. (10/11)

Honestly, I don't see any chance of wiping out the narcotics trade in Myanmar or anywhere else.

It's going to keep going up, up, up.

My wish (utopian, I know) is that some of the billions in drug trade profits could help build schools/hospitals in Myanmar's hills.

(11/11)