Myanmar seizes over 4.2M meth pills from monastery

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Three suspects, including two Buddhist monks have been arrested after police seized millions of methamphetamine pills from a monastery in western Rakhine state, a regional government official said Tuesday.

Arsara, an abbot at the Shwe Baho monastery, and his fellow monk Pyinnyar Nanda were detained along with a driver after police found about 40,000 drug pills hidden inside a vehicle in Maungdaw area of Rakhine state late Sunday, according to Tin Maung Swe, spokesman of Rakhine regional government.

“The monks were in the car when police found the drug pills,” the official told Anadolu Agency.

Later in the day, police discovered more than 4.2 million drug pills hidden in the monastery in Shwe Baho Village, Tin Maung Swe added.

Police are now in hot pursuit of a fourth suspect, he added.

According to the online magazine Irrawaddy, Arsara was well-known among the Buddhist community in Maungdaw area. He was reportedly a former leading monk in a major monastery in Maungdaw town, but later moved on to the village, it said citing a resident.

Maungdaw area in Myanmar’s western border with Bangladesh has reportedly become a major center of drug dealing in Rakhine state over the last few years.