<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="23"> The Golden Triangle is said to produce 70 percent of the entire world's heroin supply.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="31"> But now the places for doing business and the fields have all been moved to secret locations in the Thai-Burmese border region and inside Laos".</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="39"> Beginning last 10 December, the Burmese Government's crack 88th division surrounded the Shan Plateau, fighting against Khun Sa's declaration of an independent Shan state.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="45"> This was because three Burmese divisions were mounting a full-scale attack on key points of Khun Sa's camp and Khun Sa's side too, fully mobilizing 40,000 troops, were putting up a desperate resistance.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="51"> As for the drug-trade money going into the Khun Sa region, banks support it with a secret currency called Baeng Durong.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="75"> About one month before, a nearby heroin-refining factory operated by Khun Sa was bombed in a large-scale attack by the Burmese military.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="103"> "Heroin refined by Khun Sa generally slips across the Thai-Burmese border in cars to be transported overseas through Thailand.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66983" num="113"> This relay organization is interlinked like a net from the Khun Sa region to Bangkok, and other methods not using cars are all done similarly, he said.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-41211" num="98"> Experts estimate that next year the Golden Crescent's production will exceed that of the Golden Triangle; that is, more than 3,000 tons.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-28711" num="35"> He said the task of eradicating opium cultivation in the Kokang Region within six years and the Wa Region within 10 years is being carried out in consultation with the local national leaders.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-28711" num="37"> Mya Thinn said agreements had been signed by Myanmar, the PRC, and the UNDCP and Myanmar, Thailand, and the UNDCP on 12 June 1992 under a joint regional program for narcotic drug eradication with financial assistance from the UNDCP.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-26005" num="29"> In 1992, the output of opium was already as high as 2,500 tonnes and there were more than 60 heroin processing plants.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-26005" num="32"> Armed separatist regimes in Burma regard drug trafficking as the main source of their operational funds and the amounts of drugs entering China from Vietnam and Laos are increasing.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-26005" num="34"> According to statistics, in the early 1980's, the number of drug trafficking cases cracked in China was less than 1,000 a year but in 1992, the number of drug trafficking cases cracked reached as many as 14,000.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-41163" num="26"> In 1992, the output of opium was already as high as 2,500 tonnes and there were more than 60 heroin processing plants.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-41163" num="29"> Armed separatist regimes in Burma regard drug trafficking as the main source of their operational funds and the amounts of drugs entering China from Vietnam and Laos are increasing.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26800" num="16"> Mya Thin stressed in his speech that illicit poppy cultivation is related to the existence of armed groups, and an end to the armed groups will pave the way for eliminating the poppy cultivation and production of opium.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26800" num="18"> However, the government will never make peace negotiations with Khun Sa, who is a drug warlord in the notorious Golden Triangle region where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet, local sources said.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26800" num="19"> It is learnt that Yangon has been amassing government troops to fight Khun Sa and has decided to eliminate the Khun Sa's armed forces in the near future.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26800" num="22"> According to official figures today, over 1,470 kilos of heroin and over 11,800 kilos of opium were seized from 1988 to May 31, 1994 in Myanmar and over 3,300 hectares of poppy fields and 28 opium refineries were destroyed from 1990 to 1994 in the country.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26800" num="26"> Myanmar paid attention to international cooperations on drug control and Myanmar, China, Laos, Thailand and the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) signed a memorandum of understanding to control illicit drug trafficking and abuse in New York in 1993.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60083" num="20"> For this reason the four countries, Laos, China, Myanmar and Thailand, reached an agreement with the UN office for the control of international drugs to increase cooperation in correcting the problem of widespread drug production, trafficking and use.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60025" num="16"> [Text] The Burmese Government has sent its ground and air forces to mop up the ethnic minority troops under the command of Khun Sa.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60025" num="20"> About 20 heroin refineries are believed to exist in that part of the Golden Triangle in Burma that is under the control of Khun Sa, who is said to command an army of over 6,000 troops.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60025" num="22"> The world looks upon Thailand as a transit route for opium and heroin smuggled out of the Golden Triangle for distribution worldwide.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-67209" num="17"> In the meantime, the Government is stepping up efforts to deal with the unprecedented surge in drug abuse in major cities as well as the cross-border opium trade with Laos and China.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-67209" num="37"> Vietnamese authorities suspect some drugs from the Golden Triangle, seeking to avoid tight controls in China at that part of the border, have eventually gone to China anyway through Vietnam.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-67209" num="41"> Experts from the United Nations Drug Control Program are due in Hanoi soon to help the Vietnamese draft a master plan to combat narcotics abuse and trafficking, the subject of a national program, according to Mr Xuan.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-52946" num="16"> In the meantime, the Government is stepping up efforts to deal with the unprecedented surge in drug abuse in major cities as well as the cross-border opium trade with Laos and China.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-52946" num="36"> Vietnamese authorities suspect some drugs from the Golden Triangle, seeking to avoid tight controls in China at that part of the border, have eventually gone to China anyway through Vietnam.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-52946" num="40"> Experts from the United Nations Drug Control Program are due in Hanoi soon to help the Vietnamese draft a master plan to combat narcotics abuse and trafficking, the subject of a national program, according to Mr Xuan.</s>

<s docid="LA121690-0051" num="17"> During the rainy season, when four-wheel-drive vehicles cannot get through, caravans of hundreds of mules are used to bring supplies from Thailand to the army and civilian population of Khun Sa's rebel Burmese state.</s>

<s docid="LA121690-0051" num="18"> After the February dry-season harvest, the mules move the state's main product, opium, out of the inaccessible mountains to heroin factories spread throughout the Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, formerly Burma,Laos and Thailand meet.</s>

<s docid="LA121690-0051" num="25"> U.S. drug officials put last year's harvest at 4,000 tons, though they said some of this might have been damaged after harvest.</s>

<s docid="LA121690-0051" num="26"> Half of the heroin sold in the United States originates in the Golden Triangle, they say, and about 65% of this comes from Myanmar.</s>

<s docid="LA121690-0051" num="27"> Thai officials said nearly 300,000 acres of Shan state have been turned over to poppy cultivation.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-28834" num="13"> Article Type:BFN [Text] Thailand yesterday agreed to set up border task forces with Burma and Laos to improve the efficiency of local officials from the three countries in their joint campaign against illegal drugs trade.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-41251" num="14"> Article Type:BFN [Text] Thailand yesterday agreed to set up border task forces with Burma and Laos to improve the efficiency of local officials from the three countries in their joint campaign against illegal drugs trade.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66984" num="71"> This is because if I were to disclose this, the fact would become known in a concrete way that almost all the surrounding nations have taken payment for allowing the drug trade.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-66984" num="122"> Chan: Major weapons are brought in from the U.S. Americans supply us with weapons as payment for drug deals.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-30503" num="13"> BFN [Text] Production of opium in Thailand has fallen from 150 to 20 tons a year, the secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board claimed yesterday.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-30503" num="20"> Thailand consumes about 40 tons of opium a year, half of which is produced locally and half brought from neighbouring countries, especially Burma and Laos.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-30503" num="26"> He cited a police report which estimated that about 2,700 tons of opium were produced in the Economic Quadrangle area last year, 70 per cent of which was produced in Burma, 20 per cent in Laos and 10 per cent in Thailand.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3152" num="21"> A joint declaration issued after a ministerial meeting in Thailand also called for greater international efforts to curb demand for drugs.</s>

<s docid="FT921-3152" num="23"> The US says Burma is the world's largest source of illicit opium and heroin.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-45563" num="27"> China's anti-drug campaign has focused on the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, both bordering the notorious "Golden Triangle" in Myanmar [Burma], Thailand and Laos.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26653" num="27"> China's anti-drug campaign has focused on the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, both bordering the notorious "Golden Triangle" in Myanmar [Burma], Thailand and Laos.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60183" num="29"> Chang Si-fu, the most-wanted drug kingpin with a huge ransom on his head, told THAI RAT that he would like countries playing a major role in narcotics suppression to know that he has given up all narcotics-related activities, and that he wants the Shan State under him to become heroin-free.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60183" num="34"> Opium products peddled to the outside world now come from another area close to Shan State where production amounted to some 6,000 tons annually.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-60183" num="46"> If the Thai Government offers him cooperation, Thailand would become the first country to successfully close off the trafficking route in which Thailand is a transit point.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-48057" num="30"> Chang Si-fu, the most-wanted drug kingpin with a huge ransom on his head, told THAI RAT that he would like countries playing a major role in narcotics suppression to know that he has given up all narcotics-related activities, and that he wants the Shan State under him to become heroin-free.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-48057" num="35"> Opium products peddled to the outside world now come from another area close to Shan State where production amounted to some 6,000 tons annually.</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-48057" num="48"> If the Thai Government offers him cooperation, Thailand would become the first country to successfully close off the trafficking route in which Thailand is a transit point.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="18"> There is an abundance of nervous jitters these days at the remote headquarters here of Khun Sa, a man regarded by the U.S. government as the "Opium King," the world's largest provider of heroin and the pre-eminent warlord in this lawless corner of Myanmar, which was once called Burma.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="20"> He also admits to controlling 80% of the narcotics flowing out of Myanmar to the United States, an activity he argues is the only way he can feed his people and keep his movement alive.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="23"> His difficulties began with the announcement in March that he had been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on 10 separate counts of drug trafficking stemming from the seizure of more than a ton of heroin in Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 14, 1988.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="32"> Western officials noted that the Wa were receiving assistance from the central Myanmar government, primarily in the form of transportation and artillery, and logistic support from the Thai government, which allowed the Wa to pass through Thai territory to get their troops into the battle.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="59"> Khun Sa and his officers vigorously maintain that the group is not directly involved in the drug trade, but merely taxes the opium as it passes through areas controlled by his army.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="61"> Western narcotics officials paint an entirely different picture, saying that Khun Sa and his lieutenants organize the farmers who grow the opium poppies in the highlands and run the laboratories that reduce the opium to morphine base and then convert it to heroin.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="62"> The Shan States, which cover 62,500 square miles -- almost the size of Washington state -- produce an estimated 2,625 tons of opium every year, more than half the total world output.</s>

<s docid="LA092490-0071" num="82"> From 1964 to 1967, he even headed a government-sponsored home guard unit called the Ka Kwe Ye, apparently winning government blessing to deal in drugs in exchange for helping to suppress ethnic rebels.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26902" num="17"> A narcotics production base close to Yunnan's border accounts for over 60 percent of the "Golden Triangle's" entire output.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-26902" num="42"> On 24 May, China, Burma, and the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs held a meeting in Kunming, where they reached consensus and achieved substantive results in the areas of pooling information, joint investigation of cases, and substitute crops.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-29647" num="28"> Khun Sa declared independence for a Shan state in December and ordered his troops to begin an all-out offensive against Myanmar forces from the beginning of May, Kwan Muang said.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-29647" num="33"> Khun Sa, alias Chang Sifu, the 60-year-old half-Chinese, half-Shan MTA commander, controls some of the richest opium-producing areas in the Golden Triangle, the area where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet.</s>

<s docid="FBIS4-29647" num="34"> He says he merely taxes opium traders to finance the struggle for the independence of Shan state from Yangon buy he was indicted by a US Federal court on heroin trafficking charges in 1990.-- Reuter</s>

<s docid="FBIS3-26913" num="200"> Drug trafficking from beyond the borders of Yunnan has imposed a direct and serious threat to the province because the infiltration of drugs into the province has become a serious problem.</s>

