The arrests last Friday of nine Thai Army officers for the Oct. 5 murders of 13 Chinese seamen spotlight a horrific crime. But the affair is part of a bigger story of how the so-called Golden Triangle of Burma, Laos and Thailand is shifting to become the locus of massive methamphetamine production, and how complicit some units of the Thai army appear to be in the operations.

The nine have pleaded not guilty to murdering the 13, who were on two Chinese freighters allegedly carrying nearly a million amphetamine pills on the Mekong River.

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Asia Sentinel