Record seizures fail to dent Southeast Asia’s booming synthetic drug trade: UN report

BANGKOK: Despite record levels of seizures across East and Southeast Asia last year, the illegal synthetic drugs industry is thriving and growing, according to new regional findings. Methamphetamine seizures reached 349 tonnes in 2025 – a 48 per cent increase from the previous year and more than five times the amount seized a decade ago – according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released last Friday (Jun 12). The seizure of ketamine also soared 185 per cent from 2024 reaching 52.5 tonnes in 2025. Experts tell CNA the significance is not the seizures…