Record drug discovery in Southeast Asia: In Laos, police seized more than 55 million amphetamine pills and 1.5 tons of crystal meth in a truck.
It is by far the largest seizure in the history of East and Southeast Asia, UN expert Jeremy Douglas told the German Press Agency on Friday.
"That is three times as many pills as were confiscated in Laos in the whole of last year."
The officers discovered the drugs by accident when they checked a truck in Bokeo on the border with Thailand and Myanmar, the local newspaper "Vientiane Times" reported.
The truck actually transported crates of beer.
The area is also known as the "Golden Triangle" and has been a drug trafficking hotspot in Southeast Asia for decades.
The term used to be a synonym for opium and heroin production in the region.
Douglas, regional representative for Southeast Asia at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the pills were probably intended for the Mekong region market, mainly Thailand, but probably also Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos itself.
The crystal meth should probably also be sold partially to Thailand, but possibly also to regional markets as far as Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
In recent months, the trade in methamphetamine in particular has increased massively in the wake of the unrest in parts of Myanmar, Douglas had previously told the British BBC.
"The neighbors and the entire region are literally inundated with methamphetamine."
The brewery company Lao Brewery Company announced that it was in no way involved in the case.
"The company adheres to strict anti-drug trafficking policies and we are deeply disappointed that our boxes have been used as a cover for illegal activities," it said in a statement.