A senior United Nations official has called for major reforms of regional drug law enforcement to combat transnational criminal syndicates and their US$30 billion a year trade.
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regional representative, Jeremy Douglas, warned that without reforms organised crime syndicates that remain "light years ahead" of efforts to halt them will just continue to flourish.
"We'll probably see the trends continue which is not the way we want to see it go," Douglas told AAP at a conference of Asia Pacific national law enforcement agencies.
He said police agencies were failing to fully co-operate "and start working together because the criminals are - they are well out in front - they are truly regional".
"The law enforcement is not yet regional, the law enforcement is not yet co-operating to the extent it should be regionally," Douglas said.
The transnational criminal syndicates are centred on China, but with production centres ranging over Hong Kong, Northern Myanmar and Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
For the first time Latin American organised crime is setting up methamphetamine labs in the region. "They are doing that because they can make money in this region; produce here and sell here and they want to get into the action."
The syndicates oversee production of the highly potent crystalline methamphetamine or ice, with large volume trafficked into Australia.
The UN says 2013 was marked by official seizure of 14,000 kilograms of crystalline methamphetamine and over 250 million methamphetamine tablets.
But Douglas says the trafficking of ice into Australia has changed as authorities cracked down on precursor chemicals used in the drug's production.
"Now you see a lot more 'ice' made in Asia, trafficked down finished as high purity methamphetamine made in Asia and then trafficked," he said.
Consolidation of ice production into larger facilities has occurred despite closures of hundreds of clandestine laboratories, including over 570 in China in 2013 alone.
"That evolution has taken place, it's well under-way and it's something that the countries need to grapple with," he said.
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