MAE SAI, Thailand — The cargo of chemical substances from China was meant to remain close to Bangkok. However a tracker, planted by Thai drug authorities based mostly on a tip from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, confirmed it shifting north towards the porous 1,500-mile-long border with Myanmar.
Thai anti-narcotics officers believed the chemical substances can be used to synthesize methamphetamine, a extremely addictive stimulant flooding international locations throughout the Asia-Pacific area. And so they knew that on the opposite aspect of the border, in jungled hills dominated by China-backed warlords, was what the United Nations thought-about the largest meth manufacturing hub on this planet.