PANG HSANG, Myanmar - U.S. charges that eight militia leaders in Myanmar are drug lords are false and undermine efforts to stop the growing of opium in the notorious Golden Triangle, an ethnic militia leader said on Tuesday.

The eight men from the United Wa State Army (UWSA), one of the world's biggest drug cartels according to Washington, were indicted in a New York court on Jan. 24 on charges of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine, or speed.

"This is based on wrong information and details fabricated by political opportunists in Thailand," UWSA vice chairman Shiao Min Liang told reporters at the group's headquarters in northeastern Myanmar.

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