Asian crime lords target Golden Triangle as they devise new markets

FILE - Police officers stand behind seized crystal methamphetamine during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, May 29, 2023. Law enforcement officials said they seized more than a ton of crystal methamphetamine that they believed was bound for Australia. The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia FILE - A poppy farmer holds a harvested poppy stem with dried-up opium sap in a poppy cultivation in Myanmar on Feb. 19, 2013.

Crime empires embedded in Asia’s “Golden Triangle” border areas are getting richer and more powerful, blurring the lines between the illicit economy and the legitimate one as they diversify from drugs to wildlife trafficking, cyber scams and money laundering, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.