Chinese police seizes 11.1 tons of drugs in campaign of 2004

Chinese police seized 11.1 tons of drugs in the nationwide anti-drug campaign between May and Nov. in 2004, official said in Beijing Monday.

During the period, Chinese police closed 34,851 drug-related criminal cases, toppled 2,186 gangs involved in producing, trafficking or taking drugs, and captured 34,719 suspects, said Yang Fengrui, an official with China's Ministry of Public Security at a press conference.

Official statistics showed that of all the drugs seized by the police, there are 6.66 tons of heroin; 1.14 tons of "ice" drug, ormethamphetamine hydrochloride; 549 kg of opium; and 1.42 tons of marijuana.

Police authorities also confiscated 20 tons of poppy capsules, 61 tons of chemicals used as drug-making materials, 159.46 million yuan, 461 vehicles, and 92 small weapons used for drug trafficking.

Four Japanese dealers were caught by the police in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province in June 2004 for trading drugs between China and Japan by sea, Yang said.

Three months later, the police from Tibet and northwest China's Gansu Province shut off a trafficking route from Nepal to the Chinese mainland by capturing four dealers.

In October 2004, China joined hands with Thailand to cut off an international trafficking route from Myanmar to China and then to Thailand.

As a main gateway from the "Golden Triangle" area to the Chinese inland, southwest China's Yunan Province started more than30 joint actions with the neighboring countries and detained 33 dealers, said Dong Sheng, official with Yunnan provincial police department.

"The police also succeeded in reducing drug use in entertainment places like pubs, KTVs and bars by their actions last year," Yang said.

Nearly 970 such places were shut down and were 1,815 temporarily closed, and approximately 120,000 suspects were in custody from August to November last year.

Police sent approximately 170,000 addicts to mandatory drug-relief centers and 43,597 heavy addicts to centers of reeducation through labor.

This year China will continue focusing on trafficking in Yunnan Province and try to smash manufacturing of "ice" in south China's Guangdong Province and east China's Fujian Province while working to stop the growing of opium poppies, Yang said.

Source: Xinhua