Drugs, Scams, and Sin Myanmar's War Has Made It the Global Crime Capital

Descent into failed statehood is stoking conflict at home and exporting misery across continents

- Hannah Beech

The flower fields stretch out from the mountain village along almost every road - fluttering patchworks of white, pink, and purple.

The beauty in this corner of Shan state, in north-eastern Myanmar, might seem to be a respite from the country's brutal civil war.

Instead, the blooms are a symptom: It is all opium poppy in these fields, and Myanmar again ranks as the world's biggest exporter of the raw material to make heroin and other opiates. And that is just the beginning.

Since descending into a full-blown civil conflict nearly four years ago, after the military overthrew the elected government, Myanmar has cemented its status as a hotbed of transnational crime.

It is a playground for warlords, arms dealers, human traffickers, poachers, drug syndicates, and generals wanted by international courts.

Myanmar is now the biggest nexus of organized crime on the planet, according to the Global Organized Crime Index.

The criminality flourishing in Myanmar's fertile soil carries disastrous consequences for its 55 million people. It is also spreading the fruits of transgression across the globe.

With more than half of the country battle-struck after the military coup in February 2021 that unseated the civilian authority of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar is racking up dubious superlatives.

It is now the world's largest producer of opium and one of the world's largest manufacturers of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine, ketamine, and fentanyl.

Concocted with precursor chemicals from neighboring China and India, tablets made in Myanmar feed habits as far away as Australia.

With factories in overdrive and international law enforcement overwhelmed, street prices of these drugs are alarmingly cheap.

Myanmar is not just a narco-state. It is also thought to be the world's largest exporter of certain heavy rare earth elements that power clean energy worldwide.