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The United States has imposed sanctions on an Australian man working for a wild casino nicknamed Sin City in South-East Asia's Golden Triangle.
The Kings Romans Casino is in Laos but operates effectively as Chinese territory — offering gambling, prostitution, and the sale of endangered wildlife, such as tigers and bears.
Australian citizen Abbas Eberahim reportedly provided security services for the casino, which has been hit with sanctions by the US Treasury and Drug Enforcement Agency.
"Abbas Eberahim, an Australian national, is designated for providing material support and acting for or on behalf of the Zhao Wei TCO [transnational criminal organisation]," the US Treasury press release said.
"He is in charge of security at the Kings Romans Casino and was the former managing director. Eberahim has engaged in bribery on behalf of the Zhao Wei TCO."
Mr Eberahim is listed at four addresses in Australia, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia.
When the ABC visited the suburban brick home in Wagga Wagga, there was nobody home.
The Australian newspaper said it contacted Mr Eberahim by text message from Laos.
"I have no idea how come I could be alleged by the US gov," he said, according to The Australian.
"Of course, I do not accept nor agree [with] anything claimed by the US gov."
Kings Romans Casino a 'safe haven for criminals'
Kings Romans Casino is the centre point for the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
It is located in Laos, on the banks of the Mekong, where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos share borders.
"It was clearly quite a sleazy place," said Debbie Banks, tigers and crime campaign leader at the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency.
She visited the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, researching the illegal wildlife trade for a 2015 report titled Sin City.
"Apart from the casino and the gambling, [there was] the consumption of tiger bone wine, bear paw soup [and] there was obviously something far more sinister going on," Ms Banks told the ABC.
The US report said the casino "facilitates the storage and distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics".
It also permits and promotes human trafficking and child prostitution, the US Treasury said.
"The entire place was like a safe haven for criminals," Ms Banks said.
She said the casino and the businesses that feed off it are all geared towards the Chinese market.
"It's in Laos territory but you actually really felt like you were in a part of China," she said.
"All business was done in Chinese RMB, all the businesses and staff are predominantly Chinese, everything ran on Beijing time and we even observed a Chinese police car on patrol."
Washing dirty drug money
The casino owner is Chinese national Zhao Wei, a man who made his name in the drug-lands of Myanmar's north, where the fearsome Wa tribe continue to dominate the production of methamphetamines.
Heroin and methamphetamines produced in Myanmar and Laos travel down what Thai police have called a narcotics "super-highway" to markets further south, including Australia.
"The business is huge and so the money that would have to move out of that business would have to be correspondingly huge," regional representative of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime Jeremy Douglas told the ABC.
"There's been a lot of talk about where that money gets washed, where it moves, and because of the proximity of that casino — it's in the heart of the Golden Triangle — there's been allegations it's been used to launder money from the drug business."
Neither Mr Douglas nor Ms Banks met Mr Eberahim during their visits to Kings Romans.
Mr Douglas said the sanctions were a major breakthrough.
"Well I think it's going to put a big spotlight on Kings Roman and on the special economic zone ... and how the money moves in and out legally," he said.
For now though, the casino and the surrounding brothels and restaurants selling tiger meat continue to ply their illicit trade.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, bribery, lao-people-s-democratic-republic