Khun Sa argued only economic development in the impoverished Shan State, still one of the major sources of the world's heroin, could stop opium growing and its smuggling to the "drug-crazed West."
"My people grow opium. And they are not doing it for fun. They do it because they need to buy rice to eat and clothes to wear," he once said.
He carried out a one-way correspondence with US presidents, offering to sell Washington the entire crop of opium in exchange for funds to implement his development plans for the Shans.
But in 1989, he was indicted for heroin trafficking by a New York court and his extradition to the US was requested.
Khun Sa continued to war with the central government and rival ethnic guerrilla groups like the Wa until 1996 when the junta, which had once threatened to hang him, offered him amnesty. He disbanded his Mong Tai Army of about 10,000 fighters and moved to Yangon.
Although difficult to confirm, reports said he lived a life of luxury in a secluded compound, having been awarded concessions to operate a transport company and a ruby mine and other businesses.
There was speculation that he was still involved in the narcotics trade.
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