YANGON, Myanmar -- A Buddhist monk has been arrested in Myanmar after authorities found more than 4 million methamphetamine pills in his car and in his monastery, police said Tuesday.
Officer Maung Maung Yin said the monk was stopped Sunday as he drove in northern Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. Authorities had been tipped off that the monk was carrying an illegal haul.
Maung Maung Yin said an anti-drug task force found 400,000 pills in the monk's car. A subsequent search of his monastery turned up 4.2 million pills along with a grenade and ammunition. A statement from the office of Myanmar's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, said that one million kyats ($769) in cash was also found in the vehicle.
Myanmar is a major producer of methamphetamine, usually smuggled from the northeast to neighbouring countries. It is also the world's second biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived.
"This is not a normal case, and when we were informed that the monk was arrested, we were all shocked," said Kyaw Mya Win, a township police officer.
Asked about the case, the director general of the Religious Affairs Ministry, Soe Min Tun, acknowledged some surprise.
"It is not a very common case, but not impossible to happen. What will happen to the monk is that he will have to give up his monkhood right away and face trial as an ordinary person," he said.
Police said they were still questioning the monk Tuesday.
Last year, Myanmar officials seized 21 million methamphetamine pills with a street value around $35.5 million near the border with China in the biggest such seizure in recent memory.
Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 4-2 - "For Daniel the prophet says,
Daniel 12:3, that the teachers shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament after the resurrection of the dead, and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars forever and ever. And St. Paul in Corinthians
15:41 says: “For one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is
the resurrection of the dead.”
-
9. Thus you see that this text does not at all permit us to conclude from
it that forgiveness of sins is obtained by works; for Christ here speaks to ...
2 hours ago
No comments:
Post a Comment