Asia's multibillion-dollar methamphetamine cartels are
using creative chemistry to outfox police... Attachment 38053 The shipping container raised suspicions as soon as it arrived in remote northwestern Laos last July. Paperwork showed it was packed with 72 tons worth of blue vats filled with propionyl chloride, a relatively obscure chemical, and bound for an area in northern Myanmar notorious for the industrial-scale manufacturing of synthetic drugs. The cargo had been procured by a broker based in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army, a militia that for years has been accused of funding itself through drug sales. But local authorities had not heard of propionyl chloride. It is not one of the 30 precursor chemicals scheduled by the
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for use in manufacturing illicit narcotics or psychotropic substances.
Attachment 38054 Douglas was astonished. He urged the Laotians to seize the chemicals because he knew propionyl chloride can be used to make fentanyl, a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid that's ravaged the United States
in recent years, and ephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine. Propionyl chloride is not on the INCB list because it has plenty of legitimate uses, such as the production of agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals. However, the INCB recommends nations subject it to "special surveillance." News of the seizure was kept under wraps until April this year, when Douglas and Thai authorities presented it at a virtual drug conference organized by the United Nations Global Drug Commission. Laos authorities had stumbled upon a smoking gun, a major piece of evidence that likely explained how the kingpins behind Asia's
multibillion-dollar synthetic drug industry had been outfoxing the Mekong's security forces. They were employing ingenuous chemical engineering, using a variety of unregulated chemicals, to make synthetic narcotics. "These are very creative people," Douglas told the UN conference. "Fundamentally, they are innovators. They are problem solvers."
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