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WEKU
WEKU
The Associated Press

1 billion pills: The number of seized drugs reaches ominous record in Asia

Smokes and flames billow from burning narcotic drugs during a destruction ceremony of seized narcotic drugs in outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar on June 26, 2018. (Thein Zaw/AP)

BANGKOK — The number of methamphetamine tablets seized in East and Southeast Asia exceeded a billion last year for the first time, highlighting the scale of illegal drug production and trafficking in the region and the challenges of fighting it, the U.N. said Monday.

The 1.008 billion tablets — which would weigh about 91 tons altogether — were part of a regionwide haul of almost 172 tons of methamphetamine in all forms, and was seven times higher than the amount seized 10 years earlier, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report.

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