As dusk falls along the Mekong River, a nightly dance begins between Thai border security and Laos drug gangs now using drones, scouts and a pool of poor fishermen to shift record amounts of meth into Thailand.
Landlocked, secretive and with ungovernable borders, Laos has become a sluice for transporting Made-In-Myanmar meth to the drug hungry markets of Southeast Asia and Australia, where billion-dollar seizures are now being made.
Whisked over the remote mountains of Laos -- one of the world's last surviving communist countries -- shipments are regularly slipping into Thailand, the region's drug superhighway.
"It's coming in from over there," Thai navy captain Sumnuan Kamdee told AFP, gesturing across the wide Mekong, which bisects Thailand and Laos. "Drugs have become a national threat."
"And they have scouts watching for checkpoints on this (Thai) side."
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