Frontline

The Opium Kings (1997x9)

Air date: May 20, 1997

In a journalistic odyssey of more than three decades, filmmaker Adrian Cowell ventures into a remote corner of Burma known as Shan State, where much of the world's heroin originates. FRONTLINE chronicles the rise and fall of Khun Sa, a Shan nationalist leader and warlord who has long been a chief target of U.S. drug enforcement. In interviews with drug-war figures ranging from opium farmers to U.S. officials, Cowell unravels the complex political, economic, and diplomatic web that surrounds the heroin business.