Huge price hike in Muse

Drugs

Huge price hike in Muse

In northern Shan State's Muse, the gateway to China's Ruili and where it all started before the fall from grace of General Khin Nyunt, many businesses have ground to a halt including drug trafficking, prompting prices to rise sharply, reports Hawkeye from the border:

One 200-pill bag of low-quality methamphetamine used to be around Kyat 30,000 ($ 30) before 19 October, the day Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was abruptly "permitted to retire due to health reasons". It has suddenly gone up as high as Kyat 70,000 ($ 70) in the past few days.

Meanwhile, 1 kg of heroin that was around Yuan 23,000 ($ 2,875) a few weeks earlier has soared to Yuan 30,000 ($ 3,500) and upwards, according to local sources.

The price hike has been attributed to the suspension of operations by drug entrepreneurs, who have adopted a wait-and-see policy. "It will also take sometime to cultivate relations with the new people in power before resuming business," said a Shan source in Zegao on the Chinese side of the border.

All business transactions that had been arranged through connections with the Military Intelligence and its financing arm, Nasaka (Border Disciplinary Unit), were suspended after the two were taken action by Rangoon one after the other between September and October.

With the MI and Nasaka gone, the vacuum has been filled up by local police, who are setting up checkpoints to collect tax from the small traders.

Each tolaji (farm tractors used by locals for transportation) is charged 2,000 - 10,000 kyat. "The state of affairs is known as Frogs become dear when fish is scarce in the Shan saying," explained another local. "The cops, long ignored by the populace, have now become people you have to take into account even if temporarily."

On 12 September, troops from Northeastern Region Command raided the Nasaka check point in Muse and confiscated 3 chestful of gold bars, among others. The scandal led to the dissolution of the unit and its patron, the Military Intelligence.