Oct 30, 2007 (AP), One-time drug warlord Khun Sa, variously described as among the world’s most wanted men and as a great liberation fighter, has died, an associate and a Burmese official said on Tuesday. He was 74.

Khuensai Jaiyen, a former secretary of Khun Sa who works with ethnic Shan minority guerrilla groups, said that his former boss died in the Burmese capital Rangoon on Friday, according to his relatives.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but Khun Sa had long suffered from diabetes, partial paralysis and high blood pressure.

A Burmese official in Rangoon confirmed the death. Khun Sa was cremated on Tuesday morning, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Khun Sa’s body had been kept since Friday at Yay Way cemetery in Rangoon’s outskirts, where the cremation took place, said a cemetery worker, who asked not to be named for the same reason.

At the height of his notoriety, Khun Sa presided over a veritable narcotics kingdom