The vast majority of this year's opium crop in Kachin state was grown in territory controlled by the government, according to opium farmers in the state.
According to the growers who spoke to the Kachin News Group on condition of anonymity, opium production is most abundant in five townships, Danai, Hpakant, Waingmaw, Putao and Machyangbaw, all of which are under control of the central government or their proxy forces.
Nhprang Naw Bu, a member of the Kachin Independence Organization's Drug Eradication Committee charged that the highest amount of opium grown in Waingmaw township can be found in Sadung, an area controlled by members of the now defunct New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) who are now officially under the central government's much despised Border Guard Force.
