Drug lords turn to precursors

BANGKOK: Crime syndicates in Asia’s drugproducing Golden Triangle region have likely begun producing ingredients to manufacture methamphetamine, enabling them to avoid restrictions on importing precursors such as pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.

The development indicates a new level of sophistication by drug syndicates as ‘‘preprecursors’’ such as propionyl chloride are far less tightly regulated and easier to obtain.

‘‘It is increasingly clear organised crime are using preprecursors and have particularly impressive capacities in place to produce their own precursors,’’ UN Office on Drugs and Crime regional representative for Southeast Asia Jeremy Douglas said.

The Golden Triangle, northeast Myanmar and parts of Thailand and Laos, was for years a main opiumgrowing region, with Asian crime groups forming alliances with ethnic minority militias who control parts of the area, especially in Myanmar.

But more recently production has boomed in amphetaminetype stimulants, especially methamphetamine.

Intelligence suggested militia groups in Myanmar were importing chemicals used to make pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, Douglas said.