Largest drug hauls in East, Southeast Asia
The Nation December 1, 2011
Last year, about 136 million methamphetamine tablets were seized in East and Southeast Asia - a fourfold increase from the 32 million confiscated in 2008, a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. In terms of location, the largest hauls were in China (58.4 million), Thailand (50.4 million) and Laos (24.5 million).
The report showed that East and Southeast Asia were the key centres for the illicit manufacturing of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), which include methamphetamine, methcathinone and Ecstasy. There has been a significant rise in the manufacturing, trafficking and use of methamphetamine over the past five years. This and the increase in transnational organised criminal groups getting involved in the drug trade are posing a growing threat to security and public health in the region.
"The international community has taken its eye off the ball on illicit drug production and trafficking in East Asia," said Gary Lewis, of the UNODC Regional Centre for East Asia and Pacific. "The numbers are heading in the wrong direction. We must be proactive on all fronts to assist the countries of the region to counteract these threats and prevent East and Southeast Asia from again becoming a major illicit-drugs hub."
Since most of the methamphetamine tablets seized in the region are produced locally, the staggering increase in seizures reflects the burgeoning production. Last year, 442 ATS-related laboratories were busted in East and Southeast Asia - representing nearly a fivefold increase since 2006, the report said.
In 2010, nearly 218,000 arrests in the region were related to methamphetamine, a 19-per-cent increase on the previous year.
Methamphetamine accounted for 87 per cent of all drug-related arrests in Brunei, 83 per cent in Japan, 80 per cent in Thailand, 77 per cent in the Philippines and 70 per cent in South Korea.
The report also notes that South Asia and the Pacific island states and territories are vulnerable to an expansion of illicit ATS manufacture, trafficking and diversion of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, often in pharmaceutical preparations, to drug-making facilities.
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