Lintner, Bertil. Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948.
Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1994. 515 pages.
The Golden Triangle stretches into Thailand, Laos, and southern
China, but it is the Burmese portion that is, according to the U.S. State
Department, the "undisputed leader" of world opium production and the source
of two-thirds of the heroin on American streets. In 1989, a New York court
charged Khun Sa with attempted smuggling, and in 1994 DEA chief Thomas
Constantine called him the "most important drug lord on the entire globe."
Others disagree, pointing out that Khun Sa has frequently offered to grow
substitute crops in exchange for Shan independence. This book shows that
particular drug lords are not the problem. Rather, a massive economic and
organized-crime infrastructure, combined with corruption, repression, and
insurgent nationalism, has been behind the opium trade for decades.
Since 1994 Khun Sa has been squeezed by the Burmese army and the
rival Wa faction, and weakened by defections. By now he's almost out of the
picture, but this won't have much impact on smuggling. Although the Chinese
Triads are still the biggest players, other syndicates have begun cashing
in on the Golden Triangle, including the Russian mafia, Nigerian smugglers,
North Korean agents, and Japanese thugs. Meanwhile, the Burmese junta has
sidetracked foreign criticism of its repressive policies merely by opening
up their country to foreign investment.
ISBN 0-8133-2344-4
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