How Traffickers Get Millions of Pills and Tons of Meth Through Thailand | Criminal Planet

so we're in the Golden Triangle district and the police have set up a checkpoint to search cars coming down this road searching for drugs and other contraband my country Thailand is at the front line of the world's fastest growing drugs Market the meth trade in Southeast Asia is worth $60 billion a year they're searching every single car that comes past and everyone seems pretty okay with their cars being searched which kind of says to me that you know drug searches are just a thing that happened here it's so common TI Authority seized a record 139 tons of meth last year towns like this in the heart of Southeast Asia's notorious Golden Triangle are where 80% of drugs enter [Music] [Music] Thailand for [Music] uhhuh [Music] a cheap version of meth laced with caffeine sells for under $2 a pill on the Thai market pure meth ice is traffic through Thailand to countries as far as Australia where a gram sells for up to $600 this area where the borders of Thailand Lao and Myanmar meet was dubbed the Golden Triangle by the CIA in the' 70s as it became the world's second largest producer of heroin now the Golden Triangle is the largest producer of meth in the world production is centered in Myanmar where large parts of the country are controlled by a patchwork of ethnic militias who fund their insurgencies through meth [Music] trafficking the Golden Triangle is at the intersection of commercial interests political interests but really nobody governs there except for organized crime you also have criminal groups operating there for centuries traditionally they were engaged into the trafficking of heroin they moved into meth because meth is much easier to produce there's blueprints for math Labs all over the Internet so it's it's a very handy drug it's like almost like 3D printing drugs the precursors always come from China so what happens is you have large fact factories in China manufacturing producing these precursors exporting them across Borders or Chinese factories is Big Business China's breeding a sort of asymptomatic corruption in the sense that you know um they are tolerating this manufacturer of precursors because nothing really really bad happens on Chinese soil these precursors will be used elsewhere and will affect people elsewhere in the world most Chinese precursor chemicals end up in the hands of a militia called The W Army who were formed after the collapse of the Communist Party in [Applause] [Music] Myanmar backed by the Chinese state with weapons and funds the W Army have been dub by the US government the most heavily armed Narco traffickers in the world China's drive to expand their power in the region comes at the cost of exacerbating a dangerous epidemic [Music] in 2020 authorities operating in the W Army's territory made the largest seizure of synthetic drugs in the history of Southeast Asia including 200 million meth tablets drug militias like the W Army are considered to be Thailand's biggest security [Music] threat multi-million seizures from the W Army are a weekly occurrence on the Thai border and the police have just made a Fresh Catch holy that's a lot of drugs sacks full of drugs Army police and being guarded very seriously so I'd heard a lot about how drugs are packaged in these teabag containers cuz they hold exactly 100 G and this is the real thing 6,700 th000 tablets of Yaba packed in tea bags 3 million tons of Myanmar tea cross international borders every year so it's the perfect commodity to hide methan 100 kg ketamin we're looking at $26 Million worth of ketamin and Yaba right [Music] here for so this is pretty interesting the 999 five stars stamped onto the the packet of drugs that's actually the logo of The Syndicate behind the production of this batch of drugs the triple 9 and five-star stamp is the symbol of the W Army the Thai Army has the impossible job of stopping the W Army's drug smugglers coming across the border with Myanmar which is over 1500 Mi long and covered by dense jungle [Music] [Music] for the Rangers must watch their every step they are patrolling one of the most heavily landmines in the world in the 1970s Millions were planted to stop communist insurgence now the landmines are a danger to both the smuggers and the [Music] Rangers [Music] fore for Army Rangers have laid even more mines called Claymores to stop the War army [Music] Smugglers [Music] so ah I I would not want to be a drug trafficer this is really difficult to walk through ah okay and that's why you don't traffic drugs oh the scouts who are bringing the drugs across uh in into Thailand would shoot this sign to inform local people that they brought the drugs across and that they're ready for collection they leave them here and then go back to the Myanmar side but that is a lot of bullet holes as so many Smugglers invade this jungle the Army Rangers have given them a nickname [Music] despite exhaustive daily Patrols in landmine jungles the Thai Army intercept less than 10% of drugs that are flooding into the country it's crazy to think that there are thousands and thousands of miles that separate Thailand and Myanmar and it's patrolled by just a handful of people in each area these guys are the guys who are on the front line and doing a fantastic job but you know some of them are pretty young there's not that many of them and the borders are extremely poorest 5 mil North and sitting right on the border with Myanmar is [Music] Messi crime journalist P wat has become a local celebrity here after Decades of uncovering the scale of the meth trade that cuts right through this town sometimes he arrives at crime scenes before the authorities do which has caused him quite a bit of trouble um with the authorities who who are always like why did you get here before we did are you involved in this inside and knowledge is the key to understanding how the Smugglers managed to move hundreds of tons of meth across the border without being detected [Music] for we're going Offroad to meet a former spotter for drug Runners he's now a police informan tipping them off about trafficking on the Tha Myanmar border to me for for fore so despite that amazing view over there this is one of the key routes for drug traffickers to bring drugs into Thailand there's two villages on either side but the easiest way is just to come straight down the middle and they'll walk all that distance entire villages in the Golden Triangle have been economically dependent on drug trafficking for decades the Thai authorities can't arrest their way out of the problem so as a deterrent they've imposed some of the toughest drug laws in the [Music] world in a country where drug trafficking is punishable by death and minor possession can land you 20 years in jail I could be thrown in prison for meeting a trafficker and refusing to reveal my sources the Met problem is very much hidden because the government wants to keep it uh secret journalists can't really reveal expose this type of trafficking they want Thailand to keep on being you know a magnet for for tourists Thailand is actually one of the countries in that region with very little investigative reporting and if they go there and try to to do something about it they can you know get thrown in jail as well despite the risk a team of journalists from Vice has managed to gain access to a major drug trafficker Distributing meth across Thailand to avoid any lengthy prison sentence the film crew must remain anonymous their Communications are encrypted and I'm not allowed to know their identities for the trafficker allowing cameras into his world is a matter of life and death got he fore video [Music] Wy is known as The World is Yours amongst users and while there are many Urban legends about the trademark according to the American DEA is the stamp of the W [Music] Army for for for to understand why drug trafficking is so dangerous and controversial in Thailand you have to go back to 2003 taii prime minister at the time taxin chinat declared Yaba dealers and users enemies of the [Music] state Mass arrests and extrajudicial assassinations followed over half of the 2,500 people killed were later found to have no connection to drug [Music] trafficking thousands of people were arrested many people were put behind bars and it was just you know it's it's similar to what's going on nowadays with the the Philippines right with duterte it's exactly what taxim was doing in in Thailand these people think that they can solve a problem through violence through Force Through sheer force and that's a very very bad approach to Crime because crime is a system it's difficult to overstate the effect these killings have had on poor communities in Thailand so this is C or Pepsi uh he's going to be my guide getting through this CL area I've come to Clon a slum in the heart of Bangkok which was once known as The Ground Zero of Thailand's War on Drugs local rapper 19 tiger was 12 years old when his parents who were both dealing drugs mysteriously [Music] disappeared tiger invited me on the set of his latest video Land Rover and by the look of things some dodgy is about to go down there's a beat up Ben's big black bag full of drugs or money again G hands gun out B right to the head to the Head nice the new Range Rover the new Range [Music] Rover for for for on drug for fore with the highest number of Yaba users in the world per capita Thailand's Bloody War on Drugs hasn't curbed the appetite for meth it's driven it deeper [Music] Underground fore spee [Music] fore possession of just a few Yaba pills can lead to a 20-year prison sentence so parties like these are incredibly secretive and users must keep their identities [Music] [Music] hidden [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] Thailand's Draconian Drug law allow the police to conduct random drug tests on all its citizens in public places users who test positive are arrested and often imprisoned this has caused an explosion in Thailand's prison population in the last 15 years it's ballooned from 880,000 to 350,000 70% are serving time for drug offenses in Thailand you know there's there's people behind bars who are convicted for almost nothing for quantities of drugs that in in other countries would would be be completely ignored and unfortunately you know the our population of jails uh will only solidify criminal connections between people who are there behind bars the criminals will be there to offer them jobs they'll food soldiers for organized crime because this is how it works Thailand and other countries in uh southeast Asia are breeding the new organized crime groups who are going to be more audacious who are going to be more skilled when it comes to crossb business The Surge and drug trafficking in Thailand isn't an isolated problem it's part of a vast International meth Empire that has the entire region in its grip but the question is who exactly is pulling the strings you you're the guy who knows what we're talking about here how big is this industry now if you look at the whole drug economy meth economy Southeast East and Southeast Asia we estimate conservative range 60 billion US a year um obviously that money is spread along that chain but it's heavily concentrated on the one end in the produ producers hands right the guys who are producing a lot of this meth uh the big big organized crime groups they would hold billions of dollars because they're able to do deals with Japanese Yakuza Australian biker gangs or Mafia I see yeah so This truly is transnational in the sense that everyone involved the people are doing the precursors then the production then the selling until the final consumer yeah so they're using the region for what it offers them chemicals in one place production in another shipment through another Market in another and then of course they have all this money to launder which they do in other places who are they and how do they operate there's uh been names kicked around the last couple years of of some of them and particularly one which is kind of a collection of Triad interests called Sam Gore these are the gentlemen that saw the opportunity with synthetics and the opportunity to scale it up and concentrate production in the Golden Triangle using their old historic connections uh the territory that they they could get their hands on there the Sor Syndicate you know they control about 40% of the meth trade in the Asia Pacific region in the Golden Triangle they've been heavily involved in the heroin trade and then they moved into synthetics and meth and fanil and ketamine the Sor Syndicate is made of five groups these are Triads Triads who are there for hundreds of years they've always had their connections to Hong Kong to China and Hong Kong itself is a place that helps the Golden Triangle ler money because Hong Kong is great for creating companies that are used in this financial infrastructure that allows the money laundering large scale to go on the police know about the Sor Syndicate they've been um investigating you know the the Triads and um the components of this Syndicate for for many many years you can't really arrest samor because some it's not just a leader it's more like a like a Hydra that uh has heads everywhere like in you know in the financial industry in the met in connections with other organized crime groups so it's really really hard to deal with someone like the Sor group because there's no law enforcement that can match them the samgar have a heavy presence in the towns that sit on Thailand's border they launder their money through gambling and prostitution in towns like takil we've made contact with a local call girl whose clients operate in this [Music] underworld [Music] [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Music] for this C girl's testimony shows how Chinese syndicates like Sam use the Lawless towns of takil as a base for their International operations the Sor Syndicate they control Banks they control factories and they have access to the materials that are needed to create the meth and while the cheap math stays in the Golden Triangle and in Thailand the more expensive math will go to places like Australia and New Zealand because you can make billions on the back of that I mean it's it's good business because they have very very good connections with um gangs in Australia gangs in New Zealand gangs in in other countries in Southeast Asia Sam gar works with the w State militia to traffic Myanmar meth into Thailand where it then travels throughout the rest of Southeast Asia and Beyond the biggest profits are made in Australia which has the highest use of meth in the English-speaking World by the time it enters Australia the price per kilo shoots up from 8,000 to [Music] $200,000 ice it's intersecting with every aspect of Australian life now the Prime Minister has commissioned a new task force to tackle this National crisis the market is so lucrative in Australia the samgar share their profits by collaborating with the notorious biker gangs who run the country's distribution Network Western Australia has the nation's highest rate of meth use detective inspector Gordon Fairman of the Western Australian police was willing to talk to me about the scale of the epidemic over there meth has become the challenge in the Australian drug scene and we've been escalating our meth action plans uh in all of the capital cities around the country to address that we have recently intercepted 10 15 25 kilo loads although last year uh there was a significant load of nearly a ton in Western Australia particularly distribution of meth is almost exclusively controlled by omcg or alha motorcycle gangs yeah highly structured highly violent um and highly criminal what we see is organized crime networks who are wearing patches today the Western Australian gang crime Squad are hitting the trade where it hurts the most the local biker gangs who run the distribution networks part of our gang crime strategy as as you all know is we got reach into wa we can go anywhere at any time and cause disruption against om CGS so mission for today at least two warrants completed up to four warrants but go in as one team to the first address secure that and then move on to the second place what we've decided to do is we'll come in from welcome road and it does look like there CCTV on the house but the gate itself looks pretty solid and we'll basically we'll walk in behind 505 km uh the point or final action point be where guys Target address is on your left on the corner the Western Australian police are making historic cash seizures in just 6 weeks they've seized $32 million connected to the meth trade and the biker gangs thank you ladies and gentlemen and what you see in front of you today is just short of $9 million cash seized over the last couple of weeks there is a third current seizure being counted that we believe will be the highest single seizure in Australian history in excess of $20 million this money has been derived from the profits of selling methampetamine within Western Australia our intent is Relentless to Target the individuals that pedal the death trade that is methamphetamine there's vast amounts of money to be made and let's be clear about why people are involved in this trade this is this is purely about money and there are huge amounts of money that can be made if you can control the largest market share then you can make the largest profit so in a limited market like Western Australia you now you can flood the market and you could maybe double the amount of meth that's available if you can improve your Supply Chain by having more outlets and having more Transit routes then you can take over a larger market share most of the gangs that we're dealing with here are internationally represented um they're not local gangs we're talking about the Hell's Angels we're talking about the comeros the Bandidos that have an international footprint anyway our investigations over the last two years particularly have identified a number of high-profile former omcg members who have left Australia and are now resident in other countries around the world one of those countries is Thailand biky violence spilled onto the streets of Pia in September with three Australians involved in a vicious assault on two TI men profits from the $60 billion meth Market are so huge even astronomical seizures don't hinder the trade The samgar Syndicate has pioneered a terrifying transnational alliance between burmes militias tii drug Runners and now Australian biker gangs it's reached unprecedented Heights of Power by exploiting political conflicts and instability in the region if you really want to tackle this problem you got got to look at a Syndicate like the sore Syndicate and follow the money follow the companies follow all that it would take a huge network of law enforcement from all over the world to build a worthy enemy for the Sor group I'm talking about real International cooperation not just by going in you know raiding places arresting people putting them in cages in jails and all that because this is much bigger than just that you you got to look at Supply chains you got to look at you know how these businesses are run from a financial standpoint these are very complex problems that the world is not really addressing right now I think what the Thai government is trying to hide to to protect is their inability and their lack of success when it comes to fighting uh drugs at the same time we we're seeing lately that there's quite a bit of unrest because the new generations in Thailand they have different perceptions and they see that the government is not always working in their favor this is again the outcome of a closed Society where you don't allow people their freedoms ultimately the Thai government has announced that tackling the drug problem is a top priority but caught between the biggest meth producer in the world and its biggest consumer Thailand is struggling to cope with the international crime syndicates using the country as a meth Super Highway the authorities have taken a hard line on narcotics nevertheless like most War on drugs around the world it's failing to [Music] succeed throughout the making of This film one thing has become increasingly apparent and that is that the drugs industry in Southeast Asia has and is changing dramatically from the types of drugs being sold to the methods that the gangs used to operate unfortunately I'm not seeing the authorities change with them and just knowing that in the last 10 20 years drug production has gone from the tens of tons up to the hundreds of tons is absolutely terrifying in another 10 years will it be thousands of tons the next generation is going to have a huge drug problem to deal with and if we don't change an adap now we're going to lose that [Music] fight [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 721,702

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, thailand, drug, vice drugs, drug trafficking, thailand drug trafficking, golden meth triangle, meth triangle, meth, crystal meth, breaking bad, better call saul, vice meth, vice drug doc, vice criminal planet, crime, heroin, drug bust, australia, pills, criminals, gangs, wa army

Id: 4DPf4DGGKHE

Length: 42min 49sec (2569 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2023