Feds investigating Transocean’s ties to Burmese drug lords

In a July New York Times profile that singled out Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean's proclivity for breaking rules, Barry Meier noted that many human-rights activists have been calling for an investigation into the company's relationship with a family of powerful drug lords in Burma. One of their number is indeed Lo Hsing Han, known as the "Godfather of heroin." Now it appears that those activists are finally getting their wish.

As the news agency Mizzima reported on Thursday, the Treasury Department has opened a probe into Transocean's dealings in the region. Last year, Transocean signed a deal to drill in Burmese waters controlled by a family of drug lords. The family's leaders are Stephen Law — whom the U.S. government suspects is a launderer of enormous amounts of drug money — and Han, who "has been one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early 1970s," the Treasury Department says.

Business dealings with Law and Han would be considered a major breach of U.S. sanctions against Burma. The government hopes to discover whether any of the sanctioned parties are listed on the drilling contract — and to determine if Transocean knew that it was cutting a deal with some of the world's most ruthless international criminals.

The military junta that rules Burma has been accused of committing genocide, and the CIA reports that it is "a source country for women, children, and men trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation." And while most of the nation's citizens live in abject poverty, the junta is believed to have raked in billions in oil revenue, money it is reportedly using to develop nuclear weapons.