Perhaps not widely known – there are two autonomous regions in Myanmar governed by the "Wa State" which is not recognized by the international community but is very much in control of their territory.

It is financed almost entirely by crime. First through growing poppy that became heroin, then through enormous meth labs, and now also through crypto and digital scams.

The GDP of the autonomous region exceeds the GDP of the recognized Myanmar territory, despite having something like 10% of the population.

Also of interest – the ethnic subgroup that controls the region were literal head hunters up until the mid 20th century! Through a combination of CIA operations, evangelical Christianity, and the CCP (all in conflicting power struggles), the Wa people swore off head hunting and "modernized".

Anyways, there's a very interesting book about the history here called Narcotopia [1]for those interested. It uses as a primary source one of the key actors in the modernization, and as a result is incredibly biased. But super interesting nevertheless.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_State?wprov=sfti1 [1] https://a.co/d/bYkcrNg