Asia's new methamphetamine Unrest

Soldiers guard the streets at the entrance of a Burmese village under militia control.

Editor's Note:Jeremy Douglas is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

There is a serious threat growing under the radar in Myanmar -- a threat to its peace process, to the region and to the global community.

Far from Rakhine and the Rohingya exodusin the west of the country that has received much international attention, parts of northern Myanmar host a partnership between powerful ethnic militias and major transnational organized crime. Interests have aligned, and they've come together to produce and traffic synthetic drugs on an unprecedented scale.

Dozens of methamphetamine seizures in Thailand, China, Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia and Indonesia have been traced back to Shan State and territory controlled by, or under the influence of, the United Wa State Army or militia groups close to them.

In 2015, meth seizures in the region around Myanmar surpassed Central and North America for the first time. Nearly 70,000 kilograms (154,000 pounds) of methamphetamine was seized in 2017, and seizures in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar have surpassed the totals of last year only five months into 2018.

Methamphetamine from the area has also been seized in huge quantities as far away as Japan, New Zealand and Australia.