YANGON: Myanmar has seized 370 kilogrammes (815 pounds) of heroin worth $4.7 million during a raid in the northeast, police said, the latest big bust in the world’s second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan.
Weak rule of law and conflict-riddled border areas allow industrial-size trade in heroin, pills and crystal methamphetamine – known as ice – to flourish, even as massive drug seizures routinely grab headlines.
The most recent narcotics batch was discovered in a truck outside a monastery near the Shan state capital Taunggyi on Saturday night, police said in a statement Sunday.
Two men were arrested after officers found them with “62 bags containing 170kg of white heroin and 200kg of brown heroin”, it said, referring to colours indicating levels of purity.
The bust was worth a little more than 7 billion kyat, or nearly $4.7 million. Authorities in the area could not be reached for additional comment.
Though still vast, the cultivation of opium – the base ingredient for heroin – has declined in Myanmar as demand for methamphetamine surges. – AFP
