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Transcript

China's Client Narco-State

I talk to Patrick Winn about the incredible story of the Wa in the Golden Triangle

Sometimes you find a story that just blows you away and makes you wonder how you hadn’t heard it before. Patrick Winn’s new book “Narcotopia” did just that in painting the first detailed portrait of the Wa State, an Asian territory the size of Belgium that is effectively run by a drug cartel.

Wa State is officially in Myanmar but is self governed with its own army, supplied by Beijing. It churns out heinous quantities of crystal meth that floods the Asian markets, except China.

There has been surprisingly little response to China having this client narco state, but then the United States also used to work with drug traffickers in this Golden Triangle to unsuccessfully fight against North Vietnam and before that against the government in Beijing itself.

I’ll let Patrick tell you the rest in this episode of the CrashOut Chronicles podcast.

For those who prefer pure audio, here it is below, and if you just want to read then you can click for the transcript.

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CrashOut by Ioan Grillo
CrashOut Chronicles
We get deeper in the murky and bloody world of crime, drugs and gangster politics.