He was called the Opium King
the Prince of Death.
Among all the drug lords
in the Golden Triangle
he was number one.
What happens in these mountains
has deadly tentacles that spread out
to the rest of the world.
He rained poison
on the streets of New York.
If you crossed Khun Sa
there would be no question
you would be killed.
He was making
hundreds of millions of dollars
per year.
Pablo Escobar and El Chapo
may have had notoriety
but Khun Sa pulled in more cash
than they could ever have dreamed.
Money that made Khun Sa
the world's biggest drug trafficker.
Heroine, one of the most
dangerously addictive
of the so-called hard drugs
is a growing menace in America.
Asian heroin entered the US market
in the mid-to-late 60s.
This is the suitcase
one of the two suitcases
used to smuggle the heroin
into the United States.
They sometimes referred to it
as "China White".
The smuggling piece of equipment here
in that these shells are made
for the outer side of the suitcase
rather than for the inside.
They were bringing in
very large quantities of pure heroin
that were supplying the Italians
the Latin American groups
the African American groups.
They even had their own labels.
Pure. Pure number four.
This label called Double UOGlobe
top quality.
It was usually 95% pure.
This enabled users to snort it.
It took away the fear of the needle.
It expanded the market.
Businessmen were snorting heroin now
as opposed to cocaine.
It was like rocket fuel.
People were OD-ing
at a ridiculously high rate.
I started the Asian heroin squad
in New York.
We had approximately 20 agents.
The DEA is targeting traffickers
that represent a direct threat
to the United States.
Let's see those hands!
Most of our informants would tell us
the heroin coming in to New York
was coming from...
the Golden Triangle.
There was only one person that can...
could ship that much heroin.
An enemy's weapon
can be turned on themselves.
And that was Khun Sa.
Oh, hit the target!
Among all the drug lords
in the Golden Triangle
he was number one.
He was called the Opium King
the Prince of Death.
Khun Sa is the most well-known.
And the most notorious.
The individual primarily responsible
for this worldwide devastation
of drug addiction is Khun Sa.
He has delivered
as much evil to this world
as any mafia Don has ever done
in our history.
Khun Sa was considered
public enemy number one.
He's a crook, he's a liar
and he's a killer.
The DEA had a two million price tag
on his head, dead or alive.
You would dream about
actually being able to arrest Khun Sa
but it would never really believe
that it would happen.
You were in New York.
He was in Burma.
The Golden Triangle
is an area of Southeast Asia...
where three countries, Burma
Thailand and Laos, come together.
It's basically a narco-state.
And the gold part of it is heroin.
You have a number of ethnic groups
that occupy the area.
All of which
are engaged at some level
in narcotics trafficking.
One of the more infamous groups
was Khun Sa's militia group.
At his most powerful
he had a 25,000-manpower army.
Do you hear, over?
There were anti-aircraft batteries.
Trenches laid
with bamboo spikes coming out.
All his men were armed
with the very latest M-16 rifles.
I think he felt quite
safe and insulated up there
in his mountain headquarters.
His base was surrounded by mountains
not easy to call in air strikes.
It was also very difficult
to send in ground forces.
My bosses would come to me
all the time and say
"When are you gonna get this guy?"
He was well aware
that the DEA in particular
wanted him dead.
Khun Sa would never sleep
in the same bed twice.
He was constantly on the alert
for assassination attempts.
He had put a lot of money
into making sure
that the Americans weren't going to
be able to get him easily.
Khun Sa had never been interviewed
and so I went to Bangkok
and spent about a week
trying to find a way into his base
on the Burma side
of the Golden Triangle.
I'm going to a lot of bars
drinking with a lot of
ex-American service men.
A lot of people engaged
in the drug smuggling trade
and finally come across
Khun Sa's representative.
A little Chinese guy called Johnnie.
He arranged for us to travel
into the Shan State with protection.
I was heading into
Khun Sa's hideout.
A place even the DEA
had never been able to penetrate.
We're passing mule trains
that're coming the opposite direction
going back into Thailand
loaded with heroin.
How many more hours to go?
Seven more hours to go?
As the journey went through the night
we made our way by torchlight.
There were fires burning
spooking the mules.
It was like a journey
into the gates of hell.
Finally, we reached his fortress
but he's never done
an interview before
so is he going to show up or not?
Next morning
I'm sitting outside the hut
having breakfast.
Suddenly, Khun Sa
appears out of nowhere.
I couldn't believe
the most wanted man in the world
a two-million-dollar bounty
on his head and there he was.
You've been called an evil man
a vicious criminal.
What do you say to that?
I am a revolutionary leader.
The DEA and the Burmese
and the drug enforcement
organizations, all have to get money
from countries like Australia.
They get a big budget
and use it in Southeast Asia
for political purposes.
To get that money
they have to say that
Khun Sa is this and this.
Are you concerned about
the effects of heroin?
I realize that it has bad effects
on human health
and that it makes people
become slow and dull.
I realize very well
the effects of heroin.
Do you feel any responsibility
for that?
I feel very sad about that.
I realize the danger of drugs.
That is why from my heart
I want to stop the opium.
He exuded
strength, and power and warmth.
Khun Sa made a pretty amazing offer.
He told me that he would sell
all his heroin
directly to the American government
for 50 million dollars a year
over eight years.
We can use the money to help people
grow substitution crops.
Or you can let us buy
all the opium crop for you
so we can stop it completely.
I proposed to the Americans
that I wanted to help
opium eradication
but they never got back to me.
I've met presidents
prime ministers, movie stars
none of them had the charisma
that Khun Sa had.
But he was also incredibly ruthless.
His parents died
when he was fairly young
so he was left
somewhat to his own devices.
He was illiterate
he could not read or write.
His ambitions were
to become very powerful
to make a lot of money.
So around the age of 16
he started to escort opium
packed on the mules
coming out of the mountains.
It was fairly evident
that he was going to be a leader.
Anyone who crossed him...
the punishment was death by clubbing.
To operate in that part of the world
whoever is the most ruthless
they're the ones who rise to the top.
Khun Sa quickly recognized
the quality of the drugs
being produced in the triangle
and knew that
this was his ticket to power.
When you compare the opium
that comes from Mexico
or South America or Afghanistan
the opium in the Golden Triangle area
is the best quality.
It is because of the high elevation.
Its climate and its soil.
Opium has been grown
by us Shan people
since the days of our early ancestors.
Originally it was not sold
but used to cure sickness
like stomach aches and headaches.
But when the war with Burma began
many groups started using opium
to make money, for their armies.
Khun Sa was no exception.
He saw this as an opportunity
to really gain wealth and power.
As he began to provide security
for the opium shipments
he was able to recruit more soldiers
and he was able to
really rival the other groups
in terms of power and money.
During the time of his rise
Khun Sa's people, the Shan
got into a protracted war with Burma.
The Shan are an ethnic people.
The Burmese had promised
that we would have our own autonomy
the right of autonomy
but we have never been granted
independence.
We have been second-class citizens.
So we had no choice
but to take up arms
and struggle for our rights.
Khun Sa told me that
the Burmese government
was oppressing his people
and the only way for him
as a revolutionary leader
to fight that was to sell heroin.
He was selling heroin to the West
to finance his revolution.
He thought that
"If we are going to win independence"
"let's do it through drugs."
Khun Sa became
the most powerful warlord
in the Golden Triangle.
At his height, Khun Sa controlled
approximately 70%
of the heroin trafficking
emanating out of Burma.
He was making
hundreds of millions of dollars
per year.
Pablo Escobar and El Chapo
may have had notoriety
but the drug warlords
of the Golden Triangle
pulled in more cash
than they could ever have dreamed.
We're talking about money
that made Khun Sa
the world's biggest drug trafficker.
In the history of the Shan
he was one of our great leaders.
He managed to convince these people
many of whom were very poor
that he was in there
fighting for them.
A lot of that was false.
I think he was really interested in
his own, you know, wealth and power.
He's not like Robin Hood.
He claimed that people adored him
because let's say he earned 100 baht
he gave them five baht. Of course
those people are very happy
but the 95 baht goes into his pocket.
He led a lavish lifestyle.
He had a tennis court, a swimming pool
and two to three of his own houses.
He also had many mistresses.
You could say it was his hobby
or it's in his character.
Did he live well?
Let's just say
he owned many night clubs.
He was into dancing
and having a good time.
On one side, there was Khun Sa
the jungle guerrilla fighter
and on the other, there was a man
who loved the finer things in life.
Who was the real Khun Sa?
America's public enemy number one
in the United States
is drug abuse.
In order to fight
and defeat this enemy
it is necessary to wage
a new, all-out offensive.
Around 1971, President Nixon
declared a war on drugs.
This happens time after time
seeing even teenagers almost dying
fighting death.
Many people standing around
in the crowd, you know
watching this person
if they see this kind of thing and
there's not too much sympathy
for them.
This is a different kind of death.
Drugs were really rampant
in the streets.
Heroin was very prevalent.
Drug dealers and users
have reason to be concerned.
The convicted seller of
a pound of heroin, 15 years to life
with no possibility of parole.
Seeing the damage
drugs was having on American lives
the President gave the DEA
new robust powers
to go after Khun Sa.
Deal the cards, man.
I came here with luck.
What did you have
to make you this lucky today?
Did you bring any talisman with you?
- No luck! - Come on, deal the cards.
Not that I'm bragging
but I got nine!
We had an informant
who was giving us
a lot of information.
He was providing us with intelligence
on Khun Sa's organization
and on the heroin brokers.
Get home safe.
See you tomorrow.
Good luck, man.
Wow, you won a lot.
You're rich today.
Just today, I let you win.
Come early tomorrow.
Two guys came by on a motorcycle
with an AK-47
and just sprayed bullets
and killed him.
If they suspect somebody
of being an informant
then they would have no qualms
about killing that person.
I liked Khun Sa
but I didn't, for a moment, believe
that he was anything but a killer.
By the 1980s, Khun Sa was
at the height of his power
and he was effectively untouchable.
There is, at the present time
a stockpile of over one ton
of 94% to 97% pure heroin.
The agents, investigators
prosecutors at the time
were focused on one thing
and that was stopping
the flow of Southeast Asian heroin
into the United States.
They sent DEA agents
to be stationed in Thailand.
My boss called me into the room
and wanted me to set up
a small group.
And the idea was that
we would target Khun Sa.
DEA at that time
working with the Thai authorities
seized quite a bit of heroin that was
destined for the United States.
First case we did
two and a half tons of opium.
This was a major blow for Khun Sa.
This was huge win for Group 41.
We had word through special sources
and special intelligence
that Khun Sa stated that
any DEA agent found
he will kidnap.
Mike Powers was a DEA agent
assigned to work
in the Chiang Mai area.
He liked to dress in fatigues
and go out with the police
and put his face out in the public.
That's very dangerous.
You just walking around like that and
tell them, "I'm a DEA agent."
You should be a secret, you know
not trying to show your face
on the media at all.
That day, Mrs Powers
came out of the house around 10
or 11 o'clock to do some shopping.
- How much? - 50 baht.
50 baht?
Can you make it 30?
Okay, I'll take them.
It's okay, you can keep that.
Thank you.
- Hello. - Hello!
Let's go home?
Calm down!
- Stay away from me! - Calm down!
Brother!
Calm down.
What do you want? You can tell me.
I told you, back off!
I don't want anything. Back off!
- Back off! - Calm down.
Somebody was trying to send a message
to Mike, to the DEA
to the Americans.
If you crossed Khun Sa...
there would be no question
you would be killed.
Acting on a tip-off
customs agents in Bangkok
searched a New York bound freighter
loaded with bales of rubber.
In 1988, the Thai authorities
working with the DEA seized
three and a half thousand pounds
of pure Southeast Asian heroin.
When they opened up
some of the bales, they found
packets of almost pure heroin.
This was said to be
directly attributable
to Khun Sa and his organization.
It was the largest heroin find
ever made.
The value of the haul in American street
prices over one billion dollars.
We were well aware that
this organization was sending
shipments like that
into the continental United States.
Law enforcement officials from the FBI
the Drug Enforcement Administration
proudly displayed guns
and sacks of heroin.
Eventually we were confident that
we had enough to connect Khun Sa
with the heroin
coming into New York City.
That enabled us to indict Khun Sa
for trafficking.
The charges were
conspiracy to traffic in narcotics
distribution of narcotics
and continuing criminal enterprise.
The key to bringing Khun Sa down
was the indictment.
It gave
especially the Thai government
the legal rationale for
shutting down the border
and going after him.
Around 1994, the DEA Bangkok office
conceived of a strategy to go after
the highest-level drug traffickers.
We got it, Lieutenant.
This is Khun Sa
the most-wanted man we're looking for.
The name of this operation
and this new strategy
was Operation Tiger Trap.
This is Khun Sa and all of his files.
This is one of Khun Sa's henchmen.
He has a lot of manpower.
And this is Bang Ron
the guy we caught
and he had informed on Khun Sa.
You had the king, Khun Sa.
Was he going to be touchable?
We didn't know.
But he depended on his underlings.
He had people that were
taking care of his money.
He had people that were taking care
of his drug distribution.
He had people taking care of his army.
If we need to travel
we need to travel by car.
Okay.
Our thought was that
if we could eliminate these people
we would stop Khun Sa.
Freeze! This is the police!
Get down!
Why are you arresting me?
Let me go!
Stay still!
Within 15 hours
we got everybody arrested.
These individuals all associated with
the drug trafficking organization
controlled by Khun Sa
have been taken into custody
by Thai authorities.
We hope they can be extradited
to stand trial in the United States.
Arresting these individuals
was an extremely significant act
because you're cutting off
all the heads and essentially
putting the monster, you know
out of commission.
We attacked his infrastructure
we dismantled his empire.
The impact was felt in two places.
It was felt here in New York
and it was felt
in the hills of the Golden Triangle.
They couldn't run anymore.
Initially, I think he was probably
maybe not so concerned.
But as the time went by
and as he realized that
they were going to be extradited
to the United States
and were actually extradited
to the United States
it had to hit him pretty hard.
Khun Sa's ultimate weakness
he may have felt he was untouchable
and learned otherwise.
While his drug empire
was slowly being shut down by the DEA
politics between the Burmese military
and Khun Sa's revolutionary army
reached a tipping point.
Around this time, the Myanmar army
began taking on Khun Sa.
Basically, Khun Sa
was being squeezed.
He was being squeezed
from the Thai side
and he was also being squeezed
from the Myanmar side.
Head towards 521, do you copy?
He had attacked our military camps
in a major offensive.
Yeah. 521, and then head about
one mile farther north is enough.
It's not early.
Pass by 514 to come to me.
That way is better for you.
More than 800 of his men
lost their lives in the war.
His troops felt demoralized.
His top lieutenants were gone.
I think he began to
see the writing on the wall.
One of his men
contacted our intelligence unit.
Forming a team lead by me
we went to Khun Sa's headquarters.
We had to cross Thanlwin River.
It was a perilous journey.
Khun Sa came and met me.
Once I saw his face
I knew he was serious
and was not up to any tricks.
On the 7th of January 1996
he surrendered.
It was a major event at the time.
Myanmar commanders and ministers
were all there.
His army surrendered
all their weapons.
The critical thing he turned over
was his arms factory.
The size of a small workshop.
It was operated by
200 soldiers and technicians.
They produced mines, hand grenades
and rocket launchers.
They brought me to the factory.
Khun Sa's men paid respects to him.
He gave away lots of money.
About 150 to 200,000 US dollars
in just one morning.
We had to make a few trips
from the safe he kept.
After which, we just wanted the crowd
to quickly disperse.
Khun Sa gave this speech
and saying this was all done
in the name of making peace.
I will officially announce
that I don't want to do it anymore.
I will transfer my power
to God and my people.
The people can choose
their own leader.
When Khun Sa surrendered
to the Burmese government
I was the one who called the DEA
and told them. They said, "Really?"
And I said, "You go check the news."
To hear that Khun Sa
had been brought down
was very gratifying for me, personally.
And of course, for the DEA.
It was an unbelievable culmination
of a great story.
The DEA had demanded
from the Burmese government
for him to be extradited.
But the Prince of Death had no plans
to spend any time
behind bars in America.
Like the criminal mastermind he was
he'd secretly made a deal
with the Burmese
before his surrender.
One of the terms of his surrender
was that he would not be turned over
to the Americans.
He was our citizen.
He surrendered in peace.
It was a bold decision to surrender.
Why hand him over to America?
That was why he had surrendered
to the Burmese army
instead of allowing himself
to be captured by the DEA.
No matter how much evidence we had
of Khun Sa's drug trafficking
they were not about to
hand him over to us.
The man responsible
for thousands of overdose deaths
in America, and elsewhere
cleverly escaped US justice.
He was put under house arrest
in Rangoon and then
was allowed to do
legitimate business.
He owned a golf course.
His punishment wasn't
really very severe
his punishment was...
"Okay, time for you to retire."
"Time for you to get out"
"of the business."
We'd liked to have seen him
go to jail.
It never really mattered to me
that we couldn't put our hands on him
and bring him to the United States.
When you look at that chessboard
he was the king.
He was the king that we...
eventually knocked over.
We ended
Southeast Asian heroin
here in New York.
Every year
villagers and former soldiers
come together to honor Khun Sa.
We, the villagers of Baan Hin Taek of
different ethnicities come together.
We gather here to give offerings.
This is to remind the new generation
of all the good Khun Sa did
for the Shan and our village.
Those who are pro Khun Sa would say
he was just a freedom fighter.
Those who oppose him
would say he was just a drug lord.
But I would say he was both.
With drug warlords
in the Golden Triangle
take one out
pretty soon, another one emerges.
They want their own fiefdoms.
It's about power
it's about control, it's about money.
Their business must go on.
Just like the show must go on.
The evil will never die.