Underworld Empires (Part 4)

Hole of Justice
By Peter G. Jimenea

Underworld Empires (Part 4)

The Golden Triangle

In our previous topics we learned that the Golden Triangle is the mountainous mist-shrouded area comprised of the four Northern Provinces of Thailand, the Western fringe of Laos and the broad stretch of Northeast Burma.

The area is best suited for the cultivation of hush-poppy plants. Although the only usable product of a poppy is opium, it can be converted to an expensive and most-liked drugs by the American wealthy addicts – heroin.

Illegal drug is excitement and heaven for the rich but one way to escape reality by the poor. In the Philippines, we pay the services of doctors to preserve health. In big countries, celebrities hired doctors to prescribe only the drugs they need for vices.

Going back, most of the heroin comes from the opium produced by the different tribes living in these mountainous areas in Southeast Asia. In autumn of every year, tens of thousands of the farming-tribes plant millions of tiny poppy seeds in their respective fields.

Three months later, each poppy seed blossoms into a narrow stem nearly four feet tall, topped with brilliant large flower petals with colors ranging from neon orange, shocking pink and deep purples to blood reds.

During late November flowering of the poppy, hundreds of thousands of acres in these areas are drenched in stunning solid floral carpet of glorious colors. It is hard to imagine that a plant so beautiful has a product that can cause heartache and misery to millions of people!

It is from these flowers that the destructive effect of opium flows to Hong Kong, Bangkok and the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, to Europe down to the streets of America. The process continued for thousands of years so as the increase in number of addicts.

After the poppies have blossomed into striking flower phase, the petals gradually drop to the ground and the green seed pod about the size and shape of a small egg is left standing. For reasons still unexplained by botanists, the green pod produces a thick white sap called opium.

The farmers have only few days in harvesting the pod with milky sap, thus, the entire family enters the field in the evening hours to cut the green pod with series of shallow incision. The sap oozes onto the outside where it congeals and later turns into a brownish-black color.

At sunrise, the farmers again enter the field to scrape the dark sap off the pod’s surface. Each poppy produces opium a little larger than a pea. It is wrapped into a poppy petal and then placed in a wooden box carried on a string around the worker’s neck.

Few hours later, the box is filled with the foul-smelling muddy sap, similar to bitter mold. To the hill tribes that produce the opium, it is their best cash-crop because they don’t have to leave their homes to sell it, warlords sent agents to the tribal villages to buy the product.

Unlike food crops, opium does not suffer rapid deterioration. It can be stored for a couple of years. Since there is no fear of losing the opium as time passes, hill tribe farmers can keep it if the market price is not good and wait until the price improves.

The ashes of poppy plants served as astringent fertilizer ideally suited for producing excellent yields. In the 70s Burma alone produced 900 tons a year, enough when processed into heroin to supply the United States heroin population for more than ten years!

For warlords and drug traffickers, the Golden Triangle is a goldmine. In fact, the best heroin in the world is “China White,” from the Golden Triangle. The Mafia, the Cocaine Cowboys of Latin America and Joseph Auguste Ricord, a Corsican head of the French Connection subscribed to this!

Next issue: The Chinese Warlords