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Myanmar makes biggest heroin bust this year
25 октября 2013, 10:21
Myanmar police said Thursday they had arrested a man with 133 kilos (293 pounds) of heroin worth $2 million at local prices -- the country's biggest seizure of the drug this year.
25 октября 2013, 10:21
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©Reuters/US DEA/Handout via Reuters
Myanmar police said Thursday they had arrested a man with 133 kilos (293 pounds) of heroin worth $2 million at local prices -- the country's biggest seizure of the drug this year, AFP reports.
The drugs were found on Sunday in Tachileik near the border with Thailand -- a major destination for smuggled narcotics.
"One man was arrested and three others are still at large," a police official in the drugs control department told AFP .
"It's the biggest seizure of heroin this year," he said on condition of anonymity.
State media said the heroin was discovered in bags transported by motorcycle following a tip-off.
Myanmar, the world's second-largest opium producer, in May pushed back by five years its goal of eliminating drug production, to 2019.
That followed a rebound in poppy cultivation in the impoverished country, which is emerging from decades of military rule.
Experts say production of amphetamine-type stimulants is also surging in Myanmar.
Earlier this month seven tonnes of caffeine -- which is sometimes mixed with methamphetamine in pills -- were seized near Tachileik, the police official said.
The drugs trade is closely linked to Myanmar's long-running insurgencies in remote border areas, with ethnic minority rebels widely thought to use the profits to fund their operations.