BURMA: Five Arrested in Crack-Down on Heroin Racket

By: Mizzima News in Rangoon

Since January, the military arrested at leave five people for a possible connection with an international drug trade. On January 25th, in Rangoon’s upper class area, narcotics police found 83 blocks of heroin that was heading for Singapore by boat. Heroin was hidden inside timber, which is owned by the Jewellery Luck Company. Interestingly enough, the son of a former drug lord owns the port where the heroin was supposed to be shipped off. After the raid on the Rangoon port, police found another 320 blocks of heroin in a township. Those arrested include Kyaw Sein (a big boss of JLC Co. Ltd), Shwee Ann, Win Nyunt, and three others. Kyaw Sein was released after one week in custody and all of his charges were dropped. He was a Kokant ethnic. After interrogating the accussed, they revealed that “the heroin was brought from Pinlong areas in Shan state in eastern Burma and was transported by a tuck to Rangoon transiting Shan state’s capital Taunggyi.” The trucker was paid 13 million dollars to transport it. The drug size would be estimated at 100 million dollars US. 180 Kilograms of heroin was collected.


-Sarah Greenert (BURMA)