Chapter Four: The Golden Triangle

Law enforcement agencies across South-East Asia are reporting record seizures of meth, including the yaba pills pictured here after an August 2018 drug bust by Malaysian police.

Drug syndicates operating in the Mekong Valley are flooding Asia with record levels of methamphetamines. Here’s how Malaysians are involved. 

OVER 2,000km north of Kuala Lumpur lies the idyllic Golden Triangle, a point where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos converge. It is also one of the busiest drug-producing regions in the world, churning out an illegal trade worth tens of billions of dollars annually.