Laos private jet bust reveals how Mekong meth slips past borders

A private jet hired from Malaysia – seemingly destined for the Philippines – but stopped on the tarmac by Laos’ drug police who found suitcases stuffed with 512kg of crystal methamphetamine, has returned the spotlight to the unrelenting flow of narcotics from the Mekong’s drug laboratories.

Cyberscams have dominated headlines and authorities’ attention across Southeast Asia for over a year as the leading criminal enterprise worth tens of billions of dollars annually.

But methamphetamine – in its high potency crystallised form, or the cheaper caffeine-cut yaba pills – still stalks the region, spewing out mainly from Myanmar to Southeast Asia and then onto lucrative markets further afield in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

On October 1, Luang Prabang airport in northern Laos came under scrutiny as a new potential narcotics route when drug police found nearly two dozen suitcases stuffed with crystal meth.