Narcos on the front line: China’s new role in global drug wars
Chinese organised crime gangs are infiltrating new countries to sell drugs as cartels find new ways to get ice into Australia. Watch how in our Narcos on the front line docuseries.
Narcos on the Front Line
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Exclusive: Sneaky shipments of ice sent from the Golden Triangle are being transported to Australia through a new route in Asia’s Andaman Sea.
Seizures of ice plummeted last year as the drug cartels’ clever tactic of using fishing boats to meet with cargo ships carrying the drugs delivered tonnes more drugs to Australia’s ports.
Mexican cartels are also switching their supply lines, using Papua New Guinea to stockpile drugs that are then drip-fed into Australia to keep prices high.
Chinese organised crime gangs have also been setting up shop in the Pacific Islands, infiltrating countries such as Tonga, Samoa and the Solomon Islands to use as a shipping point but also sell drugs on the streets.
Jeremy Douglas, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime representative for southeast Asia, said cartels were also exploiting unrest in Myanmar.
“One of the trafficking patterns that the world kind of missed last year was that additional product was moving through the centre of Myanmar to the Andaman Sea,” Mr Douglas said.
“And very few countries noticed there were no seizures by Thailand and Malaysia at the end of last year.
“There were some seizures within Myanmar, but the world is not really talking to them at this point in time.
“So it’s unfortunate that there’s less dialogue with them to deal with this issue.”
Myanmar’s elected government was thrown out in a military coup in 2021.
Watch episode 6 of the Narcos on the front line docuseries above.
However, the Golden Triangle – or Shan State region – has long been a driver of the international heroin trade.
The lawless region is controlled by radical paramilitary groups, some of whom command as many as 30,000 soldiers.
The Golden Triangle’s proximity to China’s unregulated pharmaceutical companies has created the perfect conditions for organised crime to flourish.
Precursor chemicals can be simply shipped across the land border.
The Sam Gor cartel, a conglomerate of Chinese organised crime groups, has been perfecting the art of making drugs in the Golden Triangle by sending in top Taiwanese chemists.
“They’ve also got incredibly talented chemists that are working there,” Mr Douglas said.
“They’ve brought in the best talent. And they’re really, really ramping up incredibly high quality meth, crystal meth, which is the meth that hits the streets here in Australia.”
Mr Douglas said the Sam Gor cartel was also moving into production of the party drug ketamine, which was also used as a horse tranquilliser.
“It’s a medical product, but they produce it illicitly. They’re now really pumping that supply out and mixing it into the meth loads,” Mr Douglas said.
Chinese organised crime was also sending precursor chemicals, some of which were made in India, to Latin America.
Tonnes of precursor chemicals were arriving through Panama’s ports every day.
Sources in Panama revealed Chinese organised crime was suspected of being the major driver of the precursor chemical trade.
Dexter lives in Panama’s Old Town with his family, said crime was disrupting Panama’s economy.
“There’s no jobs,” he said.
Most of the precursor chemicals that travel through Panama end up in Mexico, where they are turned into methamphetamine.
But the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels have also moved into the fentanyl trade.
The switch has caused record drug deaths in the United States because just two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal.
“So in Mexico, I could say I think that there is a problem in China,” Felipe de Jesús Gallo Gutiérrez, head of the criminal investigations agency at the Fiscalia General de Republica police force, said.
“They are the big producers of chemical substances. 90 per cent of the chemical substances that they are producing are being used legally.
“However, at some point in the supply chain, there is a deviation of these chemical substances.
“So we don’t want to have any problems with China, but that’s something that we need to look into because someone is producing all the substances and then they end up coming here to Mexico.”
Fentanyl has become attractive to cartels because it is a highly addictive substance.
They have been adding it to ice and cocaine to get a new generation of users hooked, however many of the fentanyl deaths have been first time users.
In Colombia, cartels are still plying their traditional trade but with a twist. They are hiding drugs in bricks, bananas, coconuts to try to beat sniffer dogs at the ports. Patrol officer Daniella Patina, based in Cartagena on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, revealed how police seized hid 141kg of cocaine concealed inside potatoes.
The Australian Federal Police appointed Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan in March into a new role overseeing the agency’s work in the Pacific.
“Obviously, the region is extremely important to us, our way of life, regional stability and this new command highlights the importance of partners in the whole region and what we’re doing to try and keep our communities and countries safe.,” Mr Ryan said.
Originally published as Narcos on the front line: China’s new role in global drug wars
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