By Mg Dagon / MPA (Article)
Many people have been arrested and imprisoned in Insein Prison simply for posting anti-dictatorship content on Facebook.
Yet, just a five-minute drive from the prison, in nearby residential areas, a wide variety of illegal drugs are being openly sold.
This drug hub is located near Insein Prison and Aung Zeya Bridge, surrounded by the Insein Kan Nar residential wards. The area is well-known among drug-using youth.
Locals refer to it as “The Ghetto”—a fitting name for its maze-like network of narrow streets, lined with tiny, tin-roofed shacks, some no larger than ten square feet.
Home to many working-class families, the neighborhood shows visible signs of poverty. Children play barefoot in the streets, trash piles up along the roads, and the smell of sewage lingers in the air.
Despite these conditions, the area draws many daily visitors, mostly young people. Some arrive in luxury cars worth hundreds of millions of kyats, parking at the edge of the ward before walking into the alleyways in flashy attire.
These visitors are often escorted by local men wearing Pa Lay Kat longyis. One such regular is Ko Kyaw Lay (pseudonym), a rapper in his twenties passionate about creating hip-hop music.
Ko Kyaw Lay owns a racing car worth approximately 700 million kyats, which he leaves at the ward’s edge whenever he visits the Ghetto. He’s so well-known there that he blends in, but newcomers are quickly approached and questioned.
“They’ll ask, ‘What are you looking for? What do you want? Why are you here?’ They sound calm, but if you don’t answer properly, it could get messy,” Ko Kyaw Lay explained.
On his first visit, a friend introduced him and provided a name he could use to gain entry. A man in a longyi then guided him to the person whose name he had given.
From the ward’s entrance, they turned down a narrow alley and arrived at a small compound surrounded by four or five tiny houses, each less than ten square feet, with no fencing around them.
Men in longyis stood outside, children played nearby, and women chatted casually. The guide told Ko Kyaw Lay to go up to one of the houses, then entered himself.
Inside the house—divided into two five-foot-wide rooms separated by a curtain—people were openly using drugs in both rooms.
The front room displayed a variety of drugs: WY pills, heroin, methamphetamine (ICE), marijuana, and more.
Paraphernalia was also plainly visible—foil for WY, pipes, syringes for heroin, and glass tubes for ICE. The air inside was thick with the smell of mixed drugs and sweat from the users buying and consuming on-site.
A man smoking a marijuana joint sat in the front of the room, a small shrine behind him.
He called out to Ko Kyaw Lay, “Hey, what do you need? You can buy whatever you want—heroin, WY, weed, ICE. It’s all here. You can buy a little or a lot.”
Many others come here just like Ko Kyaw Lay. Drug dealers are scattered throughout the Insein Kan Nar area.
In some corners, elderly women sit beside the road with baskets. They’re not selling pickled fruits—but small quantities of drugs.
“The stuff they sell isn’t the best, but you can get one or two WY pills easily,” said a local youth living near the eastern part of Insein Kan Nar.
The drug trade in Insein Kan Nar has flourished for more than two decades, with no serious crackdowns by successive governments.
Occasionally, so-called “operations” take place, making drugs harder to find temporarily.
“During those times, everyone disappears. Even if you go door to door, they’ll say they don’t have anything. Only those with connections can still find what they need,” said a resident from Insein Kan Nar’s Eastern Ward.
This area was once controlled by junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee gangster Kyaw Win Sein, who was killed in a gang clash. His brother Kyin Hote now controls the territory.
Before his death, Kyaw Win Sein posted a TikTok video showing himself stepping out of a luxury car under the Insein Overpass, flanked by thugs. The video played a song by pro-junta artist Yone Lay and featured one of the entrances to Insein Kan Nar—where his group now claims to do “charity work.”
While the area is easily accessible, the routes in and out are different. In the past, plainclothes police would patrol the exits, waiting to arrest those leaving.
“You have to be careful. Regulars know the way, but if you’re unfamiliar, you might get caught on your way out,” said a drug dealer who buys from the area to resell elsewhere.
Drugs from Insein Kan Nar are easily distributed across Yangon. Although illegal, the trade runs almost like a legal operation, and prices are among the lowest in the city.
Retail sellers often come here to stock up before reselling in their own neighborhoods.
“Before the coup, a WY pill cost just over 1,000 kyats in Kan Nar, but it could fetch at least 2,000 kyats elsewhere,” said a local drug dealer.
During the NLD government, President U Win Myint launched initiatives to curb drug use, and arrests were made based on tips.
Many young people were imprisoned for possessing even small amounts of marijuana.
But even then, drugs were sold openly in this area.
Since the military coup, the situation has worsened. The area has become a safe haven for drug dealers and users, with no arrests or police presence.
Now, syringes are even prepared for single-use. No police, no soldiers, no interference—just an unregulated drug market with the cheapest prices in Yangon.
After Kyaw Win Sein’s death, his brother Kyin Hote took over, according to local youth.
Today, Insein Kan Nar is the largest retail and wholesale drug market in Yangon.
A few years ago, a well-known young rapper lost his life from an overdose—after using drugs bought easily from this area.
Many unemployed youth turn to buying drugs here and reselling them to survive, contributing to the growing number of drug-addicted young people across Yangon.
No one is stopping this sprawling drug market in Insein Kan Nar. The military junta doesn’t arrest the dealers—they collaborate with them.
Meanwhile, just down the road, many educated youth are imprisoned in Insein Prison—not for dealing drugs, but for peacefully opposing the military regime.
As innocent people rot in cells, the real criminals operate freely, just a stone’s throw away.
