Golden Triangle route is being used to import meth into Australia

A clandestine drug-smuggling route dubbed the ‘Golden Triangle’ is being used to feed Australia’s ‘insatiable appetite’ for drugs, police claim.

The three-point route in Southeast Asia is made up of the area where the Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar borders meet at the convergence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers.

The route was used to smuggle in heroin in the 80s and 90s, but has since evolved into a major ice trafficking operation which authorities believe is being run by Asian organised crime gangs.

The drug labs are hidden in Myanmar jungles, where tent cities have been established, complete with generators, computers, refrigeration and even staffing quarters, The Daily Telegraph reported.

‘From the outside the tents which house the labs look rudimentary and they still operate in a guerrilla warfare like structure,’ AFP Commander Glen McEwan, who manages the force’s Asian region, told the publication.

‘Australia is a target for drug cartels from all over the world because of the prices we are willing to pay and unfortunately because we seem to have an insatiable appetite for drugs,’ he added.

Over the years, AFP have launched operations and established task forces along with Chinese officials to tackle international drug trafficking. 

However, those efforts are believed to have inadvertently shifted the drug activity to Myanmar instead. 

The drugs are reported to be manufactured in the illicit labs before being transported to different ports and then shipped off.