Floating sacks of meth in Myanmar sea worth R295m

Sacks of crystal meth scooped from the sea by Myanmar fishermen who mistook it for a deodorant substance had a street value of $20m (R295m), an official said on Sunday, in a country believed to be the world’s largest methamphetamine producer.

The accidental drug haul off Myanmar’s coastal Ayeyarwady region occurred when fishermen spotted a total of 23 sacks floating in the Andaman Sea on Wednesday.

Each one contained plasticwrapped bags labelled as Chinese green tea packaging commonly used by Southeast Asian crime gangs to smuggle crystal meth to far-flung destinations including Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Locals were mystified by the crystallised substance in the sacks, Zaw Win, a local official of the National League for Democracy party who assisted the fishermen and police, said.

At first, they assumed it was a natural deodorant chemical known as potassium alum, which is widely used in Myanmar.

“So they burnt it, and some of them almost fainted.”

They informed the police, who found an additional two sacks of the same substance bringing the total to 691kg which would be worth about $20.2m (R295m), Zaw Win said.

Made-in-Myanmar crystal meth, better known as ice, is smuggled out of the country to more lucrative markets using routes carved out by narcotic gangs through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

A study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that Southeast Asia’s crime groups are netting more than $60bn (R8-trillion) a year, a conservative estimate, according to experts, thanks to a sophisticated smuggling and money-laundering operation.