In Photos: Myanmar burns $600 million worth of confiscated drugs

Thick black smoke billows into the sky on the outskirts of Yangon as authorities burn more than 50 tonnes of heroin, opium, ketamine, methamphetamine, marijuana and crystal meth on Friday (Source: Photo by AP)

The destruction of confiscated narcotics worth an estimated $600 million was carried out nationwide as part of events marking the United Nations' International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (Source: Photo by AP)

Events were also held in Mandalay, and in Taunggyi, the capital of eastern Myanmar's Shan state - areas closer to where the drugs are produced (Source: Photo by AP)

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict (Source: Photo by AP)

It has been a major source of illegal drugs destined for East and Southeast Asia, despite repeated efforts to crack down, and has long been one of the world's largest producers of heroin and methamphetamine (Source: Photo by AP)

Violent political unrest in Myanmar following the military takeover in 2021 - which has led into a civil war between the military government and its pro-democracy opponents, as well as ethnic armed groups - has caused an increase in drug production, according to experts (Source: Photo by AP)

In January, the military government claimed the country's largest-ever seizures of illicit drugs and drug-manufacturing equipment, taken from a total of 12 drug production sites during a series of raids in the northern part of Shan state (Source: Photo by AP)

This year, the street value of drugs destroyed was more than double last year's total, Police Lt Col Aung Myat Soe, of Yangon's Anti-Narcotics Police Force, told reporters (Source: Photo by AP)