NCJ Number
131986
Journal
Far Eastern Economic Review Volume: 151 Issue: 13 Dated: (March 28, 1991) Pages: 22-28
Date Published
1991
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The efforts of Burma's government to combat former rebels who had formed the fighting force of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma have fostered a new generation of warlords located along the country's border with China's Yunnan province and actively encouraged by Burma's military junta to enter into drug trafficking.
Abstract
This area has become the location of the region's most rapidly expanding heroin empire, and the Burma Road used in World War II has been one of the main routes for narcotics leaving the Golden Triangle into China and onto the world market. Recent estimates that as much as 30 percent of the heroin produced in Burma's Golden Triangle region is now going through China this way. Drug addiction in the area is increasing rapidly, and the government appears to be taking no significant action to address drug-related problems. In addition, the severe penalties that are the central component of China's drug policy are also having no deterrent effect in that country. Descriptions of leaders of drug trafficking organizations and of the history and current issues in Yunnan province are included.