Meth Trafficking is Riding Super Highway of Global Trade

The use of human mules to traffic illegal drugs, one of the most time-tested and expendable methods, is decimated by the closure of national borders resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this development has the unintended effect of drug cartels shifting to take advantage of legitimate supply chains to facilitate drug trafficking. Methamphetamine, one of the most profitable illicit drugs, is going along for the ride. By Lee Kok Leong, executive editor, Maritime Fairtrade

Methamphetamine, also known as meth, ice and crystal, is a highly addictive stimulant with potent physical and mental effects on users. Making and trafficking meth have rapidly become the most profitable illicit business, with the profit margin reaching unprecedented and dangerous levels.

For example, the retail meth market of Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh are inter-connected and is estimated to be worth between US$30.3 and US$61.4 billion annually, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Drug cartels are continuing, in fact expanding, their operations, in the midst of the pandemic by changing their modus operandi to take advantage of legitimate supply chains. And for them, Southeast Asia is important as both an origin and transit region, with Myanmar believed to be the world’s biggest manufacturer of meth. Meth production also takes place in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In terms of market size, East and Southeast Asia is one of the two largest in the world, the other being North America.

Drug cartels are importing chemical precursors, needed to make synthetic drugs like meth, from China and India. They are trafficking the drugs within the region and also further afield to major consumer markets like South Korea, Japan Australia, and New Zealand where profits are higher.

According to UNODC, the wholesale price of crystal meth produced in northeastern Myanmar is as little as US$1,800 per kg but retail prices are US$70,500 per kg in Thailand, US$298,000 per kg in Australia and US$588,000 per kg in Japan. For the Japanese market, that is more than 300 percent mark-up, an unprecedented margin not found in any legitimate business.