Of drones, money and drugs


Patrolling the border: Thai military rangers conducting a foot patrol along the Mekong river bordering Thailand and Laos in Ban Paeng, Nakhon Phanom province. — AFP

Nakhon Phanom: As dusk falls along the Mekong River, a nightly dance begins between Thai border security and Laos drug gangs now using drones, scouts and a pool of poor fishermen to shift record amounts of meth into Thailand.

Landlocked, secretive and with ungovernable borders, Laos has become a sluice for transporting Made-In-Myanmar meth to the drug hungry markets of South-East Asia and Australia, where billion-dollar seizures are now being made.

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