A former drug kingpin and business tycoon once dubbed the
"Godfather of Heroin" by the US government has died in his home in
Burma's main city, a source close to his family said.
Lo Hsing Han died on Saturday in Rangoon, the source said,
citing a relative of the former drug kingpin.
He was believed to be in his mid-seventies. The cause of
death was not immediately known.
Lo Hsing Han's involvement in the drug trade began more than
four decades ago.
In exchange for heading a local militia set up by
then-dictator Ne Win in the 1960s to help fight local communists in the region
of Kokang, Lo Hsing Han was given permission to engage in the trafficking of
opium and heroin, said Bertil Lintner, author of The Golden Triangle Opium
Trade: An Overview.
With one of the best-armed militias in the country, he
quickly became one of the region's most powerful drug kingpins.
Thai police arrested Lo Hsing Han in northern Thailand in
1973. He was handed over to the Burmese government and sentenced to death -
commuted later to life in prison - for treason.
He was released in 1980 as part of a general amnesty, Mr
Lintner said.
In 1992, Lo Hsing Han and his son Stephen Law founded the
conglomerate Asia World, allegedly as a front for their ongoing dealings in the
drug trade, the author said. They quickly became two of Burma's biggest
business tycoons, helping prop up the military junta, winning contracts to run
ports, build highways and oversee airports.
The US Department of Treasury, dubbing Lo Hsing Han the
"Godfather of Heroin," put him on the financial sanctions list in
2008.
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