Published on 6/26/2026
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Last update: 14:11 (Mecca time)
Under a sky covered in clouds of thick black smoke, an illicit wealth estimated at $600 million burned on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city on Friday, as authorities executed tons of heroin and methamphetamine.
This symbolic scene reflects the depth of the crisis in a country where the drug trade has become a lifeline that fuels the armed conflicts and civil war that is ravaging the country following the overthrow of the democratic government.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a long history in drug production, as it was a major source of illegal drugs heading to East and South Asia, and despite repeated efforts to eliminate it, it remained for many years one of the largest producers of heroin and methamphetamine in the world.
How did the story start?
Following the military coup in 2021 – which led to a civil war between the military government and its pro-democracy opponents along with armed ethnic groups and the resulting political unrest – drug production has increased dramatically, according to experts.
In January, the military government said it was carrying out the country’s largest ever seizure of illicit drugs and drug manufacturing equipment, which were seized from a total of 12 drug production sites during a series of raids in the northern part of Shan State.
What is different is that, according to the statements of Police Lieutenant Colonel Aung Myat Soo, the market value of drugs this year is double the total of last year.
Aung Myat Soe said that in Yangon alone, 31 different types of drugs worth about $321 million were set on fire.
Events were also held in Mandalay and Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State in eastern Myanmar – areas closest to where drugs are produced – on the occasion of the United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Out of control
Many regions in Myanmar are under the control of long-entrenched militias organized by the country’s various ethnic groups, many of which are involved in the fight against the military-run government in a bloody civil war, along with pro-democracy groups that emerged after the military seized power in the country from the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.
In elections concluded earlier this year, which international observers said were neither free nor fair with major opposition groups banned, military commanders achieved a landslide victory.
In contrast, the government says militias in the country are using illegal drugs to fund their insurgency, and are unwilling to participate in any peace process because they do not want to give up the lucrative drug trade.
Some groups are known to be involved in drug trafficking now and in the past, but other groups have also sought to eradicate drugs.
For example, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed faction in Myanmar, announced Thursday that it would destroy confiscated drugs worth about $5.5 million in areas under its control.
The faction had seized large areas of northern Shan State before signing a ceasefire agreement with the army last October.
Shadow economy
Myanmar is recording a record high in the cultivation of narcotic substances, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in its 2025 opium survey, as opium poppy cultivation in the country reached its highest peak in 10 years.
The cultivated areas recorded an increase of 17% compared to the year 2024, jumping from 45,200 to 53,100 hectares, as Myanmar occupied first place as a major global source of illicit opium, taking advantage of the continuing decline in its cultivation within Afghanistan.
Geographical distribution played a major role, as all regions witnessed an increase in agriculture, and the largest percentage was in Eastern Shan (32%) and Chin State (26%), while Southern Shan remained the densest region, as it alone accounts for 44% of the country’s opium fields. The report included for the first time the Sagaing region (552 hectares), which shifts the focus of the crisis to Myanmar’s western borders with neighboring countries.
Regarding economic factors, prices were a major incentive, as opium prices rose, registering a huge jump as a result of the deterioration of economic conditions. The price of one kilogram “farm gate” doubled from $160 in 2019 to $365 in 2025.
On the other hand, the United Nations report attributes farmers’ increasing dependence on opium as a flexible cash crop to increasing prices and the need for survival.
Despite the increase in cultivated areas, productivity per hectare has not increased (especially in northern Shan and Kachin). This is due to intensifying armed clashes and insecurity that have made it difficult for farmers to tend their fields or obtain fertilizers and agricultural inputs. However, overall production remains at historically high levels.
At the international level, the report monitored indications of the flow of heroin from Myanmar to European markets that previously relied on Afghanistan, through the arrest of smuggling cases with travelers.
While the authorities burn tons of drugs in a symbolic ceremony, the United Nations office warns that this growth will continue and the cycle of poverty and drug dependence will deepen, unless alternative and viable livelihoods are provided for farmers, stressing that what is happening in Myanmar will reshape drug markets regionally and internationally.
