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To India’s east, the surreal rise of a narco-nightmare
The surreal history of East Asia’s narco-kingdoms, as dark as any opium nightmare, teaches us what happens when authoritarianism, corruption and underdevelopment collude to bring about the implosion of polities.
An anti-drug exhibit is seen at the Drug Elimination museum in Yangon, Myanmar.
“Loyalty to the Heavens”, read the banner; beneath it, a man cried in pain as a blowtorch was held to his feet, hammer-blow jolts from an electric cattle-prod occasionally thrown in to punctuate his agony. It wasn’t personal: The man had dumped three hundred kilograms of high-grade crystal meth into the sea, claiming to have mistaken an approaching speedboat for law-enforcement. The cartel’s human-resources department had been asked to make be sure the man hadn’t helped himself to the cargo and made up the story; their clinically precise work was then circulated for the edification of other potentially careless employees.