(Continued from yesterday)
Drug-trafficking connecting with NUG-affiliated PDFs
The AA’s primary drug trafficking routes typically involve the route to Rakhine State via Shan State (North)-Mandalay-Yangon route by water and the route to Rakhine State via Mandalay-Meiktila-Magway-Padan by land. Due to increased arrests along these routes in 2024, the AA group is connecting with NUG/PDF groups, who are also hand in glove with it, and trafficking illicit drugs that are produced from Shan State (North) and Kachin State to Rakhine State in 2025 through PDF-operated areas in Sagaing Region and Chin State.
Consequently, a news report widely circulated that three PDF members were arrested with 3 million methamphetamine pills and 100 kg of heroin, estimated at over 9 billion Kyats (USD 2.5 million) by a Chin armed group in Haka Township on 8 July 2025. In fact, the drugs belonging to the AA group were transported by the PDFs, receiving a fee. It was revealed that the drug trafficking PDF members were from the Yinmabin District PDF group, under the NUG, and that they were trafficking drugs to raise funds for their group’s survival because the NUG does not provide support to PDF terrorist groups. They had previously succeeded in trafficking drugs three times, but were arrested on their 4th attempt.
This incident clearly demonstrates that the PDF groups under the NUG are emulating the AA group’s drug trafficking model and operating it as a business to sustain their groups. Furthermore, the AA’s drug distribution network has spread widely throughout Myanmar, shifting from the transport of drugs in small quantities frequently to the transport of drugs in large quantities less frequently through the areas they control. They themselves conduct drug-trafficking and collect tax revenue by allowing the drug-trade in the areas they operate. The drugs trafficked and distributed by the AA are being used extensively not only among young people in various villages and towns but also among members of armed insurgent groups.
Specifically, the confiscated dead bodies of AA members during battles in the Rakhine State and other evidence indicate that AA leaders often administer narcotics to their subordinates to endure the hardships of battle. Similarly, as PDF terrorists are also following suit, a market for psychotropic drugs is taking place within armed insurgent groups.
The AA’s foreign market for illicit drugs
The AA’s foreign market for illicit drugs extends from Bangladesh and Malaysia to Western countries and the Middle East. The incident that demonstrates this fact is the arrest of 13 members of a narco-gang between 5 and 14 August 2025, along with 21.8 million amphetamine pills, 5,614.2 kg of ICE (crystal meth), and 1,899 kg of Ketamine, estimated at 257 billion Kyats (USD 71.4 million). The offenders plotted to conduct drug trafficking to Malaysia and Bangladesh.
In this case, major-level ranked Ko Yay (Rakhine), the AA’s customs head stationed in Wan Hai and Win Khine (under identification of his rank) living in Myebon of Rakhine State are members of the AA group. Likewise, Tun Thein (Rakhine), living in Yangon and responsible for storing and distributing narcotics, and Kyaw Swar Win (Rakhine) from Kungyangon, who is responsible for trafficking drugs to Malaysia, are also AA’s supply in charge masquerading as civilians. Kyaw Han, the secretary and finance in charge of the AA group, operates behind the scenes.
In terms of the AA group’s drug economy network, AA members themselves transport, distribute, and sell narcotics at home and abroad. In situations like this, the group tasks individuals as in charge in the insurgent-controlled areas and assigns the business duty as well as supply duty to the Rakhine people masquerading as civilians in the areas where risks of arrest are high. The AA group not only smuggles its own narcotics but also provides safe passage for the narcotics of other armed groups through its areas, in return for tax collection.
According to the statements of those arrested in this case, drug-dealers made drug-trafficking from Wan Hai to Bangladesh and Malaysia through Myebon Township, where the AA group operates in Rakhine State. Once the drug-trafficking is conducted, the AA group would receive a total of 3,460.0 million Kyats as the tax revenue: 654.0 million Kyats for 21.8 million amphetamine pills at a rate of 300,000 Kyats per 10,000 pills, 2,807.0 million Kyats for 5,614 kg of ICE (crystal meth) at a rate of 500,000 Kyats per kilo of ICE. The AA group does not need to invest in drug-dealing itself, but instead has a representative in the drug-producing area and a representative in Rakhine State, and has its group’s civilian support in charge along the drug-carrying route, collecting net tax revenue for the drugs passing through its area.
Accordingly, it is evident that the AA group is heavily involved in both directly trading narcotics to meet its group’s financial needs and in allowing other narco-gangs to transit its area to collect substantial tax revenue.
More apparent evidence is that plenty of psychotropic drugs distributed and sold through villages and towns in Rakhine State, where the AA group operates, can be easily purchased in refugee camps within Bangladesh. This point can be clearly seen in the 2021 report of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) in Bangladesh. According to the report, there are approximately eight million drug users in Bangladesh, and the DNC manages to seize over 50 million psychotropic tablets annually. The seized psychotropic tablets were trafficked into Bangladesh via villages and towns controlled by the AA in the Rakhine State. The seizures reveal the involvement of AA members themselves in drug trafficking. Hence, there have been undeniable eyewitnesses and documents that the AA armed terrorist group is extensively carrying out drug trafficking operations not only within the country but also to foreign countries.
Mutual impact between the drug economy and acts of terrorism
The AA group’s drug economy network is connected both domestically and internationally. Revenue from narcotics has strengthened their arsenal of weapons and ammunition. As continuous battles occur, they are increasingly engaging in drug trafficking to replenish diminished arms and ammunition. Similarly, drug trafficking is causing more lawless acts of terrorism. To carry out more armed terrorist acts, they are increasingly pursuing drug trafficking as their primary business. The AA group’s armed approach, fuelled by drug revenue and manpower/weaponry, has escalated
battles. Due to acts of terrorism, stability and peace in Rakhine State have been destroyed, and the public’s social life is declining.
Undeniable acts of terrorism
To ensure its survival, the AA group has indoctrinated its members with narrow-minded racial views through Rakhine racism. Consequently, the AA troops have been observed and heard to be brutally committing racially and religiously motivated violent attacks against other ethnic groups and tribes within Rakhine State. The recent widely reported incident in international news media, where approximately 600 Bengali people, including children and women, were brutally murdered in Htan Shauk Khan village, Buthidaung Township, in May 2024, exemplifies the AA group’s inhumane acts of terrorism.
Similarly, in June 2024, a sub-group of the AA terrorist group, led by Tun Wai, groundlessly murdered a total of 357 Muslims in Buthidaung: 87 men from 5 wards in the town, 135 men from Sein Nyin Pyar village, 95 from Nyaung Chaung village, and 40 from Taung Bazar village, accusing them of being associated with the government forces. The AA group, believing in Rakhine chauvinism, has not only forcibly recruited Bengali people, but also Chin and Mro people living in Maungdaw and Paletwa townships, and has also been known to commit bullying and killings. In December 2024, over 90 Mro people, including over 30 children under the age of 18 from Thittonenar Khwason village in Maungtaw Township, were forcibly abducted, and their families are worried as they have not been heard from so far.
Specifically, the AA group frequently launches drone attacks against Bengali villages in Buthidaung and Maungtaw regions, forcing Bengali people to flee as displaced persons. Similarly, it commits indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians in Paletwa, Pauktaw, Minbya, MraukU, and Kyauktaw Townships, and forces them to attend military training and collect money by extortion from those willing to have an exemption from military training.
The aforementioned drug trafficking network and terrorist acts of the AA terrorist group constitute crimes that no country in the world can accept. Although the group vehemently denies involvement in drug trafficking and terrorism, undeniable eyewitnesses and documents clearly exist.
Call for action to the international community
The issue of anti-narcotics has been a challenge for successive governments, and drug-trafficking is the main source of income for the survival of terrorist insurgents under the name of ethnic armed groups, and is also related to the prolongation of internal armed conflict. Therefore, the State Administration Council government has given special priority to drug prevention and suppression, and has eradicated and combated it with its own resources without international assistance. Even though it is actively cooperating with international organizations to be more effective and successful, it is unfortunate to see and hear that some foreign governments and anti-narcotics organizations are turning a blind eye to drug dealings and acts of terrorism by armed drug lord AA groups and NUG-affiliated PDFs and their acts of terrorism against innocent civilians.
Therefore, this is a call for action to international anti-narcotics organizations that it is required to combat armed narco-gangs like the AA terrorist group under the name of ethnic armed group, which is heavily involved in drug-trafficking, to more effectively suppress the drug-production, drug-trafficking and drug-dealing encountered by Myanmar, and to effectively prevent acts of terrorism that are strengthened by the drug trade.
By Aung Shinn
#TheGlobalNewLightOfMyanmar