Laos Seizes Record Meth Haul Amid Regional Production Boom
Earlier this week, authorities in Laos announced the seizure of a record haul of methamphetamine, the latest indication of the massive amounts of illegal narcotics now flowing through the lower Mekong region.
As per the state-run Vientiane Times, an official at the Public Security Office reported that police stopped a truck in the capital Vientiane and discovered that it was carrying a shipment of 85 bags of methamphetamine containing a colossal 16,976,000 tablets – the largest seizure on record, and close to the total amount seized in Laos in the whole of 2020.
The alarming thing about the seizure, apart from its sheer size, is the fact that it was not particularly out of the ordinary. Large-scale drug seizures are currently occurring on an almost daily basis in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, signaling the recent sharp increase in drug production in the lower Mekong region.
Sebastian Strangio
