Drug crackdowns in Southeast Asia surge as illicit trade booms despite Covid-19

Drug traffickers in Southeast Asia are among a select group of workers unworried about job losses, with the illicit trade booming even as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted supply chains worldwide.“Drug trafficking has continued at high volumes in Southeast Asia despite Covid-19, particularly in the lower Mekong, where methamphetamine production has surged and prices per kilo and on the street have dropped again,” said Jeremy Douglas, regional United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime…