Drug gang suspects die in shootout Officers injured in Yunnan incident

Two drug suspects were killed in a shootout with police and 330 kilograms of narcotics were confiscated in the Yunnan province incident, China's National Narcotics Control Commission said on Wednesday.

The two resisted arrest and exchanged fire with police in Dehong prefecture on Saturday as they entered China from Myanmar driving two sport utility vehicles, the prefecture’s public security bureau said in a news release. One of the suspects died at the scene and the other died at a hospital, officials said.

The suspects also used a grenade, the report by the country's top anti-drug authority said. Two police officers were hurt, but the injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.

The seized drugs included heroin, methamphetamine and opium, and a gun and 10 bullets also were confiscated, officials said.

Drug dealers are more active during holidays like Spring Festival since drug use tends to peak, said Liu Yuejin, deputy head of the commission.

There were 165,000 cases relating to drug crimes, 194,000 suspects captured and 102.5 tons of drugs seized in 2015, according to the most recent annual numbers available from the Ministry of Public Security.

China seized more than 750 million tons of drugs in the past decade, and prosecuted more than a million drug crime cases, according to the commission.

China is under growing pressure from drugs smuggled in from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle, which is close to Yunnan and where poppy cultivation continues to flourish.

About 95 percent of the heroin seized in China in 2015 came from the Golden Triangle — a drug-producing area that overlaps the mountains of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, data from the commission indicates.

A report last year by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that trafficking originating in the Golden Triangle area is increasing, mainly due to rising levels of opium production in Myanmar since 2006.

Amount of drugs seized by Chinese authorities in the past decade Workmen use molten iron to create a scene like a starlit night in Hebei province’s Weixian county on Monday. The tradition is a popular way to celebrate Spring Festival.

Xinhua contributed to this story.