The Golden Triangle is a large, mountainous region of approximately 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi)[1] in northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Laos, centered on the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers.

[11] The following districts make up the approximate geographical area of the Golden Triangle:[12][13] In the late 1940s, as the Chinese Communist Party gained power, it ordered ten million addicts into compulsory treatment, had dealers executed, and opium-producing regions planted with new crops.

[citation needed] The surrender of drug lord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army in January 1996 was hailed by Yangon as a major counter-narcotics success.

According to a confidential MOGE file reviewed by the investigators, funds exceeding $60 million and originating from Myanmar's most renowned drug lord, Khun Sa, were channeled through the company.

[20] A United Nations report also cites corruption, poverty and a lack of government control as typical causes for impoverished farmers to engage in drug production.

[24][25][26] In 1972, traditional European supply routes for American-consumed heroin (known as the French Connection) were disrupted after Turkey banned the growing of opium poppies, which led to an increase in production in South East Asia.

[27] With an existing Triad organized crime infrastructure to service a large local population of addicts (consisting of an estimated 150,000 regular users)[28], combined with its busy international Port of Hong Kong and Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong soon became an important transit point for Southeast Asian heroin,[29] as well as convenient money laundering center to reinvest the profits of international sales.

[37] California and Hawaii were the primary U.S. entry points for Golden Triangle heroin, but small percentages of the drug were also trafficked into New York City and Washington, D.C.

[39] As demand grew, Asian criminal organizations began trafficking large shipments of high purity heroin hidden amongst legitimate seaborne cargo to the United States of America.

[49][50] Instead of attempting to smuggle a single large shipment, Nigerian traffickers would typically recruit many low level non-Nigerian couriers to transport a couple of kilograms of heroin at a time via regular airline routes from transshipment points in Asia, such as Singapore,[51][52] to western Europe or the eastern United States.

[53][54][55][56] Earlier on the same day, Dutch national Johannes van Damme, who was employed by the same gang as a drug courier, was arrested in the transit lounge of Singapore Changi Airport and found to be in possession of 5.79 kilograms (12.8 lb) of high quality heroin hidden within two secret compartments of his suitcase.

[57] In a separate case in October 1996, U.S. law enforcement officials arrested members of a Chicago based Nigerian trafficking group that smuggled heroin from Thailand via couriers for distribution to cities across the American Midwest, that was believed to have supplied over 200 kg (440 lb) with an estimated retail price of $100 million a year to various street gangs in the region.

[59] With respect to the accelerating synthetic drug production in the region, and specifically in Shan State, Myanmar, Sam Gor, also known as "The Company", is understood to be one of the main international crime syndicates responsible for this shift.

[60] Made up of members of five different triads and understood to be headed by Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian gangster born in Guangzhou, China, the Cantonese Chinese syndicate is primarily involved in drug trafficking, potentially earning up to $8 billion per year.

The organization is active in a variety of countries in addition to Myanmar, including Thailand, Lao PDR, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Taiwan.

[63] A Panthay from Burma, Ma Zhengwen, assisted the Han Chinese drug lord Khun Sa in selling his heroin in north Thailand.

The report also noted that yields had decreased to 22 kilogrammes per hectare of poppy field and farmers were being paid around US$300 per kilogram of raw opium over the same time period.