by Stop Mike Lupica on January 3 at 10:25AM
A few months back, Khun Sa passed away, at the age of 73. In his prime, he was one of the most powerful drug lords in the worlds, and was to heroin what Pablo Escobar was to cocaine. With one notable exception: unlike most drug lords, he was neither imprisoned nor killed, and was able to walk away, to retire, from the game.
Khun Sa was born in Burma in 1934, to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. First off, let's briefly explain Burma and the Shan state. Burma (now known officially as "Myanmar") is a country in Asia; it's majority is the Burmese, but there also exists an ethnic minority group known as the Shan. The are more similar to the Tais ethnic group of Thailand, and have long fought against Burma government since it became an independent state. The British had supposedly promised the Shan people their own independent state at the time that they were negotiating the independence of Burma. The British would later renege on their promise, and the Shan people, despite having been helpful to the British empire for many years, would accuse the Brits of treachery. Since then the Shan state has been fighting for independence.
Khun Sa (not his real name - it's a nom de guerre that means "Prince Prosperous") father passed away at an early age, and his mother remarried the Chief of Mongtawn, a royal-like figure in Shan politics. It was because of this marriage into royalty that Khun Sa would make the necessary connections in government and military that would define his early life.
At 26 (in 1960), he was approached by a military chief to start a pro-Burmese government militia in the Shan state. He did, and 1963 he had it up to around 800 men, with the government suppling him with money, uniforms, and arms for fighting the Shan rebels.
At this point he stopped working with the Burmese government, and turn into a true mercenary. He took control of land, and got involved in the opium trade. The Golden Triangle refers to this region of the world (Burma, Thailand, Laos) where 80% of the world's opium production (used to form morphine and heroin products) at the time was located.
He was arrested by the Burmese government in 1969, but released in 1973 after his second in command kidnapped a couple of Russian doctors and held them in return for the release of Khun Sa. Upon his released, he doubled his efforts in opium production and smuggling.
A true mercenary, he would flip sides depending on which side benefited him the most. He often claimed in public that the Shan people were his priority, and renamed his army to reflect that: "The Shan United Army". Of course, the Shan people didn't necessary view him as a savior, but more as a half-Chinese druglord. Never the less, he sold his story in the press, that he was fighting for Shan independence, and that the proceeds from the drug trade were being used for that purpose, and solely that purpose.
This 1982 Time article contains a good deal of info on what Khun Sa's operations were like at that time. He was based on the other side of the border, in Thailand, at the time. When the Thai army came to Sa's base of operations, to arrest him, they found a warlike battle awaiting them. They eventually won the battle, but it took heavy gun fighting and three days, with 16 Thais dying in the battle. The Shan Army fled back into Burma, including Khun Sa. The "village" the Shans left behind was described as surprising modern - leather furniture, tennis and soccer courts, spacious villas.
The American government vilified Khun Sa for flooding the market with heroin. From an 1996 Frontline interview with DEA agent in Burma:
Q: How much of the world's heroin, in a general way, originates in Burma?
A: ...it appears that at least 70% of the world's heroin comes from the Golden Triangle.
Q: Describe heroin or opium growing, trafficking. What's that world like?
A: It's a complicated situation. When you describe the Golden Triangle you're talking abut a piece of real-estate, 80% of which lies in Burma. Burma is a country that is not accessible in a lot of ways by the outside world. By design, the Burmese want it that way. Within this area known as the Golden Triangle you have the Shan State. Again, 80% within Burma. Then going there you have ethnic groups that are basically in a state of rebellion against the government of Burma.
One of those groups is the Shan United Army. That group is controlled by a half-Chinese, half-Shan known as Khun Sa. His organization alone accounts for sixty to seventy percent of the heroin that's in the United States.
Q: How bad was the situation? You got there, you looked at it, you saw it.
A: ....Khun Sa was doubling his capacity, his ability to produce heroin, every ten years. The amounts that were coming out were staggering. The heroin purity on the streets in inner cities in the United States had more than quadrupled. Some places were going from six and ten and a half purity that an addict received in a dosage unit on the street... Now we were looking at sixty to eighty to ninety percent pure heroin on the street. It was a disaster. And you could, by looking at Khun Sa's capacity, understand that he was not having a cash flow problem.
Q: So he not only made more heroin, but he made better heroin, and he made more money doing it?
A: Well his heroin was always pure. His heroin was always the best in the business.
A: This is a man who trained an army of twenty-five thousand along strict military lines.
He is most famous for proposing to the American government that they should buy his opium if they want to keep it off the streets for real. In 1978 he even tried to make a deal with the U.S. to sell it 500 tons of raw opium over a five-year period for $30 million. The Carter administration turned it down, believing it would not stop the heroin from coming in. So they indicted him instead, though he was never captured.
Soon after being forced out of Thailand (as mentioned above), he started up business again on the Burma side. He did good for a while, but by 1995 the DEA was breaking the drug chain, getting to his clients since they could not get to Khun Sa himself (supply-side drug enforcement). The money began to dry up, and with the $2 million bounty on his head, and the Burmese government wanting more and more of a cut from the heroin trade to keep housing him... he decided it was time for a career change. So when the Burmese army came for him in 1996, he negotiated with them, and handed them his opium production in exchange for his freedom.
He then spent the rest of his life living off his wealth, and doing business in real estate and construction.
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Khun Sa was born in Burma in 1934, to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. First off, let's briefly explain Burma and the Shan state. Burma (now known officially as "Myanmar") is a country in Asia; it's majority is the Burmese, but there also exists an ethnic minority group known as the Shan. The are more similar to the Tais ethnic group of Thailand, and have long fought against Burma government since it became an independent state. The British had supposedly promised the Shan people their own independent state at the time that they were negotiating the independence of Burma. The British would later renege on their promise, and the Shan people, despite having been helpful to the British empire for many years, would accuse the Brits of treachery. Since then the Shan state has been fighting for independence.
Khun Sa (not his real name - it's a nom de guerre that means "Prince Prosperous") father passed away at an early age, and his mother remarried the Chief of Mongtawn, a royal-like figure in Shan politics. It was because of this marriage into royalty that Khun Sa would make the necessary connections in government and military that would define his early life.
At 26 (in 1960), he was approached by a military chief to start a pro-Burmese government militia in the Shan state. He did, and 1963 he had it up to around 800 men, with the government suppling him with money, uniforms, and arms for fighting the Shan rebels.
At this point he stopped working with the Burmese government, and turn into a true mercenary. He took control of land, and got involved in the opium trade. The Golden Triangle refers to this region of the world (Burma, Thailand, Laos) where 80% of the world's opium production (used to form morphine and heroin products) at the time was located.
He was arrested by the Burmese government in 1969, but released in 1973 after his second in command kidnapped a couple of Russian doctors and held them in return for the release of Khun Sa. Upon his released, he doubled his efforts in opium production and smuggling.
A true mercenary, he would flip sides depending on which side benefited him the most. He often claimed in public that the Shan people were his priority, and renamed his army to reflect that: "The Shan United Army". Of course, the Shan people didn't necessary view him as a savior, but more as a half-Chinese druglord. Never the less, he sold his story in the press, that he was fighting for Shan independence, and that the proceeds from the drug trade were being used for that purpose, and solely that purpose.
This 1982 Time article contains a good deal of info on what Khun Sa's operations were like at that time. He was based on the other side of the border, in Thailand, at the time. When the Thai army came to Sa's base of operations, to arrest him, they found a warlike battle awaiting them. They eventually won the battle, but it took heavy gun fighting and three days, with 16 Thais dying in the battle. The Shan Army fled back into Burma, including Khun Sa. The "village" the Shans left behind was described as surprising modern - leather furniture, tennis and soccer courts, spacious villas.
The American government vilified Khun Sa for flooding the market with heroin. From an 1996 Frontline interview with DEA agent in Burma:
Q: How much of the world's heroin, in a general way, originates in Burma?
A: ...it appears that at least 70% of the world's heroin comes from the Golden Triangle.
Q: Describe heroin or opium growing, trafficking. What's that world like?
A: It's a complicated situation. When you describe the Golden Triangle you're talking abut a piece of real-estate, 80% of which lies in Burma. Burma is a country that is not accessible in a lot of ways by the outside world. By design, the Burmese want it that way. Within this area known as the Golden Triangle you have the Shan State. Again, 80% within Burma. Then going there you have ethnic groups that are basically in a state of rebellion against the government of Burma.
One of those groups is the Shan United Army. That group is controlled by a half-Chinese, half-Shan known as Khun Sa. His organization alone accounts for sixty to seventy percent of the heroin that's in the United States.
Q: How bad was the situation? You got there, you looked at it, you saw it.
A: ....Khun Sa was doubling his capacity, his ability to produce heroin, every ten years. The amounts that were coming out were staggering. The heroin purity on the streets in inner cities in the United States had more than quadrupled. Some places were going from six and ten and a half purity that an addict received in a dosage unit on the street... Now we were looking at sixty to eighty to ninety percent pure heroin on the street. It was a disaster. And you could, by looking at Khun Sa's capacity, understand that he was not having a cash flow problem.
Q: So he not only made more heroin, but he made better heroin, and he made more money doing it?
A: Well his heroin was always pure. His heroin was always the best in the business.
A: This is a man who trained an army of twenty-five thousand along strict military lines.
He is most famous for proposing to the American government that they should buy his opium if they want to keep it off the streets for real. In 1978 he even tried to make a deal with the U.S. to sell it 500 tons of raw opium over a five-year period for $30 million. The Carter administration turned it down, believing it would not stop the heroin from coming in. So they indicted him instead, though he was never captured.
Soon after being forced out of Thailand (as mentioned above), he started up business again on the Burma side. He did good for a while, but by 1995 the DEA was breaking the drug chain, getting to his clients since they could not get to Khun Sa himself (supply-side drug enforcement). The money began to dry up, and with the $2 million bounty on his head, and the Burmese government wanting more and more of a cut from the heroin trade to keep housing him... he decided it was time for a career change. So when the Burmese army came for him in 1996, he negotiated with them, and handed them his opium production in exchange for his freedom.
He then spent the rest of his life living off his wealth, and doing business in real estate and construction.
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I think you found a hot post topic, SML! Lots of promise with this one. I still say that your ticket to big viewing #'s (if you want them) might be gangster/NYC crime posts.
Who is Jay Z ? Jay Z made a song about Frank Lucas and
The Real Deal Frank "Pee Wee" Matthews operated for years right up the street from Jay Z and he never heard of this guy? Jay Z didnt even sell on a large scale in his own neighborhood not because of morals yet because of the principles that he wasnt allowed to, You want to know about someone who didnt get killed or jailed Look up
Frank "Pee Wee" Matthews even Frank Lucas will tell you he was the Real Deal
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Wow. Great post. Khun Sa makes Jay-Z look small. I wonder why he is never mentioned in any gangsta tales?