Myanmar police seizes 4.6 million meth pills from monk

Abbot U Arsara was caught at the weekend by the narcotics task force while driving his car in the country's western Rakhine sate.

The monk carried drugs on him and stored a huge amount of pills at his house in Southern Maungdaw township. He reportedly also had ammunition in his vehicle.

‘The case is being reported to the authorities in Naypyitaw,’ colonel Nyan Win Oo from Maungdaw police said. Myanmar moved its capital city from Yangon to Naypyitaw over a decade ago.

The incident is shocking local Buddhists in the abbot's township. ‘Other religions will lose respect for us and it causes us embarrassment,’ resident U Khin Maung told local news platform The Irrawaddy.

It is not the first time large amounts of meth were seized in Rakhine state. According to local media, police confiscated 15 million pills in a drug haul in September.

Buddhist monks in South-East Asia have hit the headlines with scandals involving drugs, drinking and sexual abuse.

In 2014, Myanmar's neighbour Thailand launched a hotline for citizens to report misbehaving monks.