China's border police arrested nearly 2,500 Chinese stowaways from July last year to this June, preventing them from illegally stealing across national borders, said an official of the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.

Chen Weiming, director of the border administration of the Ministry of Public Security, said border police arrested 2,459 stowaways in the last half of 2005 a decline of 15 percent and the first half of this year which dropped 28 percent.

He said police along China's 22,000-km land borders and in coastal areas are on constant guard against citizens who illegally cross borders.

In 2005, border police busted 4,475 attempts at drug smuggling, arrested 5,071 suspects and seized 4.53 tons of drugs. In first half of this year border police cracked 1,968 drug smuggling cases, 2,043 criminal suspects and seized 1.87 tons of drugs.

Chen said since July last year border police also cracked 2,500 other smuggle cases involving 240 million yuan.

"Border police also effectively stemmed Chinese citizens crossing borders for gambling and logging, and persuaded fishers not to fish in other country's seas," said Chen.

China borders 14 neighboring countries and has more than 18,000 km of coastline.

Source: Xinhua