JAKARTA - In a series of raids, as the Covid-19 pandemic was closing in last year, Myanmar security forces in northern Shan state netted 18 tonnes of methamphetamine - a record for Asia.

The raids, which occurred over seven weeks through to early April in three townships clustered about 150km from the Chinese border, also netted nearly 300kg of heroin, half a tonne of opium and enough liquid fentanyl to fill a small tanker truck, as well as materials to make the drugs.