Myanmar civil war fuels surge in cross-border drug trade, Thailand official says

BANGKOK — Thailand has seen a surge in illegal drugs trafficked from neighbouring Myanmar and a sharp increase in methamphetamines and heroin seizures, as a civil war adds fuel to the regional drug trade, a senior Thai counter-narcotics official said.

Apikit Ch.Rojprasert, deputy secretary-general of Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said the northern region remains the main trafficking route into Thailand, with dealers going through the mountains or on the Mekong river to bring in methamphetamine tablets and crystal meth, also known as ice.

Thai authorities say organised crime networks have allied with militias and rebel groups to set up "super labs" in Myanmar's Shan and Kachin States.

A junta spokesperson declined to comment for this story but Myanmar's ruling junta has previously said it is committed to working with neighbouring countries to tackle narcotics.

"Because of the armed conflict, the drug trade is one of the factors used to fund weapon purchases or drive the fighting forces," Apikit told Reuters in an interview.

"We have to be vigilant about crimes that are linked to drug trafficking and work with neighbouring countries."

Myanmar is locked in a civil war, with the military fighting on multiple fronts and losing territory to an armed resistance movement loosely allied with several ethnic minority rebel groups. The military took over the Myanmar government in 2021.

Seizure of meth tablets in the first eight and a half months of this year in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son increased by 172 per cent from the amount seized in all of 2023 to 346 million pills, ONCB data showed.

Seizure of crystal meth in those provinces increased by 39 per cent over the same