A Myanmar herbal doctor and his assistant are now facing criminal charges for allegedly distributing an herbal medicine at an Irish-registered herbal medicine expo in Myanmar.
A woman who bought the medicine said the medicine cost more than $100, while her husband paid $10 for the medicine.
The alleged seller of the herbal medicine was arrested in November at a coffee shop in a central Myanmar village, according to the Myanmar National News Agency (NPR).
The DEA said it had arrested three men and a woman from a village in the Kachin state, which is under a military-run administration, on charges of trafficking in narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia.
The DEA said in a statement that the suspects had illegally sold at least four kilograms of herbal medicine and at least 1,000 pills to people who did not have the proper prescription.
“The alleged ringleader and other ringleaders involved in the illegal distribution of herbal medicines in the country were apprehended, and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the DEA said.
The men and women are being held in military detention centers in the southern city of Phnom Penh, according the DEA.
According to NPR, the herbal medicines were sold for more than the $100 to $200 mark, and that they were sold to people whose names were not published in the DEA’s database of international narcotics distributors.
This is the second time the DEA has arrested herbal medicine distributors in Myanmar, and the first time the case was prosecuted.
In March, the DEA arrested an unidentified man in Kyaukphyu, a city in Myanmar’s Kachinsan state, for allegedly trafficking in herbal medicine.
The man was charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and smuggling.