Thailand
Thailand to burn 340 tonnes of drugs, marking end of this year's 'war on drugs'
Bangkok: The Thai authorities will destroy 340 tonnes of drugs by the end of February, marking the end of this year's 'war on drugs', Thailand's The Nation newspaper reported on Monday.
This will be the biggest drug hoard ever destroyed in Thailand as part of the government's "Set Zero" campaign, the report said.
A convoy of trucks delivered a total of 340 tonnes of confiscated substances from the Thai Health Ministry, located in the central province of Nonthaburi, to the Bang Pu Industrial Estate in Samut Prakan province, 31 miles to the south, the newspaper wrote.
The incineration process will kick off tomorrow and is expected to last for eight days, during which 110 tonnes of drugs are to be burned.
The rest—230 tonnes of illegal substances—will be destroyed between January 19 and February, the newspaper added.
The temperature of the flame will be brought to 1,800 degrees Celsius to ensure total vaporisation and mitigate environmental damage.
The cost of the procedure was estimated to be 9 million baht ($260,000).
Similar anti-drug campaigns will be carried out throughout the 2024 monthly, with the amount of substances to be burned at a time ranging from 100 to 150 metric tonnes, the newspaper said.
To date, Thailand is one of the largest transit hubs for drug trafficking in the region. The turnover of the region's organised criminal economy reached $130 billion in 2019, according to data from the UN.
(With UNI/Sputnik inputs)
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