Burmese fishermen #39;faint#39; after mistaking $20 million of floating crystal meth for natural deodorant

pa href="https://news.yahoo.com/burma-fishermen-faint-mistaking-20-141841933.html"img src="http://l.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/9EnHmdd8JTDuKD7zL8Q8Hg--/YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b247aD04Njt3PTEzMDs-/https://media.zenfs.com/en-GB/the_telegraph_258/0c701be9f7adf86689e635d09e565b2b" width="130" height="86" alt="Burmese fishermen #39;faint#39; after mistaking $20 million of floating crystal meth for natural deodorant" align="left" title="Burmese fishermen #39;faint#39; after mistaking $20 million of floating crystal meth for natural deodorant" border="0" /aSacks of crystal meth scooped from the sea by Burmese fishermen who mistook it for a deodorant substance had a street value of $20 million (£15.4m), an official said on Sunday, in a country believed to be the world#39;s largest methamphetamine producer. The accidental drug haul off Burma#39;s coastal Ayeyarwady region occurred when fishermen spotted a total of 23 sacks floating in the Andaman Sea on Wednesday. Each one contained plastic-wrapped bags labelled as Chinese green tea - packaging commonly used by Southeast Asian crime gangs to smuggle crystal meth to far-flung destinations including Japan, South Korea and Australia. Locals were mystified by the crystallised substance in the sacks, Zaw Win, a local official of the National League for Democracy party who assisted the fishermen and police, told AFP. At first, they assumed it was a natural deodorant chemical known as potassium alum, which is widely used in Burma. quot;So they burned it, and some of them almost fainted,quot; he said. They informed the police, who on Thursday combed a beach and found an additional two sacks of the same substance - bringing the total to 691 kilogrammes (1,500 pounds) which would be worth about $20.2 million (£15.6m), Zaw Win said. quot;In my entire life and my parents#39; lifetime, we have never seen drugs floating in the ocean before,quot; he said. The massive haul was sent on Sunday to Pyapon district police, who declined to comment on it. Burma#39;s multi-billion-dollar drug industry is centred in eastern Shan state, whose poppy-covered hills are ideal cover for illicit production labs. Made-in-Burma crystal meth - better known as ice - is smuggled out of the country to more lucrative markets using routes carved out by narco gangs through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that Southeast Asia#39;s crime groups are netting more than $60 billion a year - a conservative estimate, according to experts - thanks to a sophisticated smuggling and money-laundering operation. In March, Burma authorities seized more than 1,700 kilogrammes of crystal meth worth nearly $29 million, which police said at the time was their biggest drug haul this year.pbr clear="all"