the cold due to a lack of beds. saudi arabia has announced it will bar rivals from abroad to perform hives this year because of the coronavirus the kingdom is allowing only a limited number of saudi citizens and residents to make the pilgrimage the annual event normally attracts around 2000000 people from around the world in other news the french president has accused turkey of playing a dangerous game by providing military support to libya's internationally recognized government emanuel says turkey is an obstacle to securing the ceasefire calls are growing for a political solution to the crisis. south korean activists have managed to evade police and release propaganda balloons carrying leaflets and money into north korea the government in seoul had tried to stop them to prevent relations with the north getting worse those are the headlines the news continues here on all of his era after one to one goodbye. county because that's the problem is kind of job losses increase government that so headed toward world war 2 levels when asked that his

arrest hold i don't blog is divorced from reality possible pandemic devastates indigenous communities across lax in the marin. county recall although obviously a. record breaking amounts of methamphetamines are being seeds across asia. massive calls of pills and crystal meth are flooding the region. some of it reaching as far north as japan and as far south as a stray leaves in new zealand. where does it all come from me in my arms the big use meth producer in the. little. old world has lost before it can struggle. one the one east travels to the borderlands of me in my arms to investigate what's driving asians method and why

authorities are powerless to stop a. so-called golden trying. for its beauty and the tories for drugs. behind these mountains is myanmar we're standing in thailand and over there is a highway making it really easy. for traffickers to bring drugs over the border and straight to the cities of thailand it's a perfect combination of geography infrastructure supply and demand. we're on the frontline of the drug war joining a thai military patrol trying to stop the massive flow of methamphetamines coming

across the border. colonel. is the leader of the patrol. he's overseen some of thailand's biggest violent busts. we have to make them realize. you can't come into our country. and. they're. going to. be anybody way. right through. the unit covers more than 30 kilometers of the border. many encounters end up in gun fights.

this team killed 5 traffickers doing the bust but there are always more willing to take their chances. traffickers with backpacks full of meth can run across the border just a few minutes. how much they bring in depends on the size. and that. can carry 100000. 200. backpacks or just one way to traffic mess and the staggering amount is coming in and authorities estimate that there. only catching about 20 percent of it. another way they try and stop the flow of drugs at checkpoints along these border provinces. time military and police search buses and trucks where large stashes could be hit in. the checkpoints are designed to catch traffickers by surprise and today the authorities have had

a big win. ringback this is what 300 kilograms of the crystal meth looks like. soldiers carry out of their bundle for the cameras. ringback on the streets is this high purity form of the drug is the most expensive kind if you'd reached australia these drugs would be worth $100000000.00. but you know isn't. going to. buy. i. phone. number or more.

money it's with thailand's narcotics control board he tracks the patterns of trafficking he says in more than 30 years on the job he's never seen a time when so much crystal meth is being seized on average there has been a bust every week if. the 1000. and for the producers seizing this amount is that a big hit for them. the money. the 20. the drugs the do make it across the border get distributed among dealers. the trade is so lucrative it outweighs the threat of life sentences. this former dealer agreed to meet with us if we disguised his voice

and appearance. over crap out of the bottle i would buy the pills for $2.50 and then i sell it for nearly $4.00. for 5 years he sold thousands of these red pills a day they're known locally as you. just. leave all my him my he delivered the drugs to me and back. at 1st they gave me small bags of $200.00 pills. and it was $2.00 pills effect. and then $4000.00 and then up to 10 balls. with carmen how long does it take you so. it doesn't take long. just a day. his profit 110000 pills could be as much as 13000 dollars did you ever think back what you were doing was hurting other people and if you did

why did you continue. the legacy of a 1st i thought this was wrong. but after a while i was making money so i didn't think too hard about it going to meet. the demand for meth across asia has never been higher. growing economies are being fueled by workers grinding away at menial jobs. many laborers used which means crazy medicine to help them work long hours while those who can afford it use the pricier crystal meth or ice to party hard. stories about meth addiction are regularly in. new guys. don't call. it all. that what happens. and it's.

what weapon in my wow yeah. oh yeah by a wide angle bro i babson it. at all i thought that by. but the majority of users are everyday people. is a single mother who works several jobs to support her 2 children who live with her parents. she says she regularly uses you stimulating combination of methamphetamine and caffeine to help her concentrate at work. it's like i've become super focused on what's in front of me i stay on task. and i just sit there and human. and. easy to get body bags for and have to go to the dealer twice 1st to place my order and

then have to wait hours if not days to go pick it up and now i can pick it up right away. each pill costs $3.00 tip says many people she knows have become users. in some cases users can work an exchange for their pills they have one here some people just work it off by doing manual labor they don't have to pay for it. to be used as almost every day but denies she's the nat act. even though i use i never let my kids never let them have it never even seen it. meth production is cheap and large scale estimates vary between 216000000000 pills a year that's more than the number of coffee starbucks or. most of it is

made in state which has ready access to precursor chemicals from china. it also has roads leading into thailand where the finished product is then trafficked to other countries. has become an ideal hiding place for meth labs thanks to decades of civil wars. vast areas of the state are still controlled by armed groups both rebels and government forces. the drug trade is a huge money maker for all sides. the most powerful of the rebel groups is the united states army they used to be famous for their heroin smuggling authorities in myanmar and thailand think they're now in the meth business notoriously secretive journalists are rarely given access . but they have recently appointed

a spokesperson. by phone. time to answer questions. he's surprisingly upfront about drugs being produced in wa territory but insists that it's all in the past. i don't. get a lot. do you think there are any labs and your territory right now. partner. with sporadic rains and televised drug burnings their true involvement in the meth

training is difficult to prove. the only one allowing us to see for ourselves is the shan state army south. it is shot on state day. a celebration of resistance against the myanmar military. all you know and i don't know no one. is the defacto leader of this territory. once it was in the business of the club tomorrow and then. as this army shows off its fighting skills shine people from across the state parade in their best outfit. is an expensive affair for an army still fighting

a civil war. yachts are going to soldiers are considered rebels by many in myanmar but here he is loved. and what he says is obeyed no stranger to the drug trade he once fought alongside the infamous drug kingpin couldn't sock who was known for trafficking heroin worldwide. but these days he says the territory he controls is drug free like i am all government global policy blow yarmulke you know yarmulke many. about won't involve one car i know what.

this policy might sound harsh but it has popular support. that. we the people children and adults don't want addicts are the people of the shan state army so we know all the drugs we young and old men and women all agreed this holds and. is a former addict who joined the army to get clean. i would take 10 pills a day and $3.00 to $4.00 pills at a time. when i went to work i secretly took the pills without my family knowing the me and were done with but when they found out we fought along the way. they were disgusted with me. he used to live in an area ruled by a patchwork of militias their dealers were easy to find. when

i bought it i bought it from a policeman. people told me it was both a dealer in police. work. he was part of a militia group not afraid of anything. going on and i. says drugs are so enmeshed with authority only tough policies like death threats can stop it. yes you get by how the world says drugs are a huge problem. and the rebels get all their money from the roads. but that's not true and we're radek eating drugs we're not getting money from drugs at all. but reports suggest some armed groups in myanmar earn money by providing safe passage for the traffickers i ask him if it's true. you know if they pass through

here we arrest them what is your source of income if not drugs we do tax everything not related to drugs. my timber gems my cattle awful we could plenty of money from that time. if we're mixed up with drugs our nation progress with the international community wouldn't accept us because it's immoral that's why i've decided to fight drugs. if we see a meth lab we shoot it up no conversation when we get rid of them. but those who have worked in n.t. narcotics here are more skeptical. john whalen is a bit tired united states drug enforcement agent he worked with the da inside myanmar for 25 years the chance to hurt me sound told me that they're serious about eradicating drugs in their territory how seriously do we take i mean i personally i

wouldn't take them very seriously if said there for years put on shows for the benefit of the west more or less to say that they're serious about it. but they still benefit from the trade they have to fund their army they have to pay them somehow feed them somehow so there's too much financial benefit for them to be out of the trade. denies any involvement and orders his right hand man to take us on a patrol. to prove it. major hunk leads us to an area where he says they've destroyed methamphetamine labs. we've made sure that the truck traffic. their drugs into our area that. he brings me to a based on their border. and

what to read. what about the other 11. more than 11 have been. in our control. everyone knows who is producing the drugs it's in the news. the narcotics. and mars only government. money. why isn't anyone destroying those labs that's what i'd like to know your answer points the finger firmly at groups aligned with the military i think the biggest drug producers are the pro-government militias. which are allied with the. army they make the most drugs because they can operate in many areas. for decades the meum are military struck

ceasefire deals with rebels and turn them into pro-government militias by giving them more autonomy and turning a blind eye to their illicit activities. a recent raid in a pro-government militia territory uncovered 2 meth labs capable of producing 10 tons of meth among the $7000000.00 of lab equipment they found a pill stamp with the infamous w y the same as the pill the dealer we met was selling. back in thailand i tracked ringback down japan. from the law who ethnic group he led a militia aligned with the government. 'd 'd know he lives in exile. japan says fighting alongside the myanmar military cost him his leg. he says he was never involved in making drugs but admits tax from drug trafficking was a source of income for his people. 'd in his day the drug being trafficked was

heroin. there are rules about how much and where you have to pay and whenever they cross into our territory they need to pay. more than 20 years later he says the meth business operates the same way. make sure you are at great risk he offers to take us to meet a current militia leader in pro-government militia territory. we agreed to meet at a border town called touchy like. thora the scholar at the hub of meth trafficking . right now. it's a dangerous to our journey for japan he's made a lot of enemies here are we now in paramilitary areas.

but this one is. 000000 militia and then militia. he says many of the militias here are involved in trafficking. so where we just passed we paid. was to the drug court. we passed through more than 4 pro-government militia territories it's not safe for us to make too many stops. to pat says the new roads have accelerated the mess train only if you'll. look. at the moment. good will. they use the main routes not just the meth labs have been discovered just a few kilometers off the highway but this is as close as we can get without risking our safety. go especially.

good look at. all which. we arrive at a. run by the pro-government militia japan warns us not to ask too many questions like to pet this leader says his village would not survive without allying with the government. almost almost all of the little money. up with the i want to. use the harassment may have stopped but the village still has to find a way to earn money. love a. lot of people going on as if most.

people and. i broach the sensitive topic of methamphetamine how are they getting their tries. to do the job. for all the world so it's all just goes for what you want also has little i thought of a couple of you have. to pat makes light of a tense situation. and it's time to leave. back in the van japan insists that providing safe passage for drug traffickers is one way for these poor ethnic groups to survive. the likes of that but the pub that got much. but for japan the real culprit is the myanmar military. in short as long as the myanmar military exists the drugs will continue to exist.

from generation to generation for a fugitive drug kingpins myanmar has been the only place where they have found safe haven. the only place they can. when i went east made multiple attempts to contact me mars drug enforcement division but received no reply for that in the capital yangon john will increase it's likely military officers turn a blind eye to the meth trade but doubts they are manufacturers is the military directly involved in the military unlikely are they allowing it to occur in their areas of operation yet they are it's a deadly cycle drugs fund the wars and the wars provide the perfect camouflage to keep the drugs flowing the narcotics trade meth trade certainly fuels the conflict proceeds from the narcotics trade are used to fund militia groups providing weapons

providing food pay the soldiers so that's certainly not helpful to the peace process. mean more civil war long assessments of corruption of the created biggest meth problem. from the little red plume 2 turns of crystal meth. there are profits to be made because of the engine demand. and where there is demand there will always be supply . july on al-jazeera in a controversial move israel is expected to unacceptable settlements in the occupied west bank how will the world react in a not so sweet a story chocolate time to darkness expose the continued use of child labor on cocoa

plantations president putin will try to stay in power beyond his final term with an attempt at changing russia's constitution maybe has sound will host a special series of interviews been asked to tackling the big issues about time marking the 25th anniversary of the biggest war crime on european soil since world war 2 will witness a ceremony paying respect to the victims of the sort of done so genocide. july on al-jazeera. in uncertain and isolating times the listening post cuts through the noise you've been looking at another side of this story out for martha the information around the outbreak but the missing from the listening post on al-jazeera. kenyan journalists in pursuit of press freedom and justice palace i think it's great situations where someone's about that hope you can afford being cool and investigating government corruption and the national health care system

some of the transactions asking i don't think a lot. of money that is unexplained to africa uncensored unpublishable things up people don't want to even if it doesn't let me ask you this truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. a spike in u.s. car on a virus cases it states the biggest restrictions but that's not stopping new york city from reopening for business. class hello i'm daryn jordan this is out as they are a lawyer from go also. going up the french president emanuel macro slams turkey's role in the libyan conflict schools grow for a political solution to the crisis. activists and defectors send out propaganda messages from south korea to the north as tensions escalate between the 2 neighbors

. on scott tyler in bangkok thailand while the people here are intensely proud of their unique culture there is growing concern of the erosion.