And in Cambodia, officials burned 130 kilogrammes of drugs estimated to be worth some $4 million (£3.14 million).

The huge seizures are often touted as proof these countries are making inroads into the vast regional drug trade.

But law enforcement agents say they are just the tip of the iceberg as producers ramp up production to meet growing demand across Southeast Asia and increasingly in Bangladesh and India.

And unlike their Latin American counterparts, cartel leaders in the Golden Triangle are rarely ever arrested or killed.

The senior officer in Naypyidaw said almost all of the drugs burned at Myanmar's official ceremonies originated in the eastern state of Shan in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups.