China seizes 12 tons drugs in five years

China has cracked 636 drug-related cases during the past five years, seizing 12.4 tons of drugs, 271 tons of chemicals, and arresting 832 suspects, the General Administration of Customs announced Tuesday.

"Drug traffickers mainly make use of mail or cargo delivery for smuggling activities. They also always disguise themselves as passengers in an attempt to carry drugs through customs," said Lu Bin, director of the administration's Smuggling Cases Investigation Bureau.

During the past five years, China has seen a growing number of major drug smuggling cases, Lu said, citing that they have cracked 41 such big cases, seizing more than 10 kg of drugs in each case, totaling 11,765 kg.

In the period, China reported 306 drug smuggling cases originating from overseas and captured 1,677 kg of heroin and marijuana, indicating a still grave situation of the smuggling of traditional types of drugs, especially from overseas.

Meanwhile, China is facing up to a severe situation of smuggling cases of new types of drugs, such as ecstasy and "ice", or methamphetamine, which has become a main trend in drug trafficking, according to Lu.

Lu also pointed out that these smuggling cases mainly happened in Yunnan, Guangdong, Fujian, Tibet, Sichuan, Shanghai and Dalian.

Among these areas, China cracked 171 drug-related cases alone in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, in southwest China, accounting for 27 percent of the country's total.

In the meantime, drug trafficking in south China's Guangdong Province is becoming increasingly serious and Guangdong has become the major channel and distributing center for drug smuggling activities, Lu said.

In addition, Lu said, China saw drug traffickers from China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions and foreign countries as well from time to time.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has just announced last week that it will launch a new large-scale campaign against narcotics by cutting channels for drug trafficking from abroad, cracking down on domestic manufacturing of "ice," and stopping smuggling of home-made materials for making drugs.

The campaign, to be carried out between August and December, will focus on breaking up seven major channels between China and neighboring countries and regions, said Yang Fengrui, director of the Anti-Drug Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

Ministry sources said China uncovered 93,900 drug-related cases last year, seizing 9,535 kg of heroin, 905 kg of opium, and 5,827 kg of "ice".

Police arrested 63,000 suspects in connection with drugs offenses, said the ministry.