Khun Sa | Drug lord, 74

Khun Sa, 74, a drug lord once described by the U.S. government as the world's largest producer of heroin, has died, an associate and a Myanmar official said yesterday.

Khuensai Jaiyen, a former secretary of Khun Sa, said his former boss died Friday in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, according to relatives. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Khun Sa had long suffered from diabetes, partial paralysis and high blood pressure.

Khun Sa once headed a guerrilla army and called himself a freedom fighter. For nearly four decades, the charismatic warlord claimed to be fighting for autonomy for the Shan, one of many ethnic minorities who have long battled the central government of Myanmar.

But agents around the world used terms such as Prince of Death to describe him, saying his organization relied on violence, murder, assassinations and bribery. At one point, Washington estimated that up to 60 percent of the heroin in the United States was refined from opium in his area, and the U.S. once offered a $2 million reward for his arrest.

He had lived in seclusion in Yangon since 1996.- AP