In 2018, the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on the Kings Romans casino empire that dominates the area, accusing it of being linked to a network involved in “horrendous illicit activities” including drug, human and wildlife trafficking and child prostitution.
At the time, casino owner Zhao Wei denied the allegations, charging that the US was guilty of “malicious rumour-mongering”.
The ICG said it had identified a possible bear and tiger farm within the Golden Triangle, which was marked as a “zoo” but was allegedly a facility for breeding the protected species for wildlife trafficking. The site was not open to the public.
Tiger bone wine was spotted on sale in the enclave, which the vendor said was locally produced, the ICG added.
The report also claims a Lao women’s rights organisation is involved in widespread human trafficking of young women for sexual exploitation and of scam centre workers.
The Telegraph has previously reported on prison-like compounds in the region, where young professionals are lured with false job offers and forced to conduct multi-million-dollar online scams against victims around the world, including the UK.
In Myanmar’s Shan State, in the east of the country, drug production adds to unbridled criminal activities that have worsened since the country’s 2021 military coup.
The report pinpoints Shan as “one of the largest global production centres of crystal methamphetamine, as well as amphetamine tablets and heroin” – a drug trade that lies at the heart of the state’s political economy and fuels criminality and conflict.
The two regions in Laos and Myanmar had become “a contiguous zone of criminality that is largely beyond the reach of the two countries’ authorities,” said Richard Horsey, the ICG’s senior adviser on Myanmar.
“Geopolitical rivalries must be set aside so that the US and China can support a coordinated regional approach involving intelligence sharing, joint operations, and transnational multi-agency approach, beyond the limited scope of criminal justice.”
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