Guangdong police make big drug bust
The police in Guangdong province seized more than 4.1 metric tons of narcotics, mostly crystal methamphetamine, in the first three months of the year, dealing a heavy blow to drug traffickers in an area that has been a major focus of China’s antidrug campaign for decades.
Some 3,490 suspected drug dealers were detained, including residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, in the course of uncovering 2,790 drug-related cases in the first quarter, the Guangdong Public Security Department’s head of drug enforcement, Zhai Kaixia, said on Tuesday at a news conference in Guangzhou.
Police also investigated 20,360 drug addicts during a campaign, which ran from January to March.
In one major case cracked at the end of February, police seized more than 1.3 metric tons of cocaine valued at 1 billion yuan ($160 million). It was the largest cocaine bust Guangdong police had seen since 1949, Zhai said.
A special international task force was established to hunt down two Hong Kong suspects, surnamed Cheng and Chan, after police learned they had fled abroad.
Suspected of being the ringleaders of a cross-border narcotics gang, they were detained overseas and were returned to Guangdong province last month. Zhai didn’t name the country in which the two Hong Kong residents were apprehended.
“The large amount of cocaine that was smuggled to Guangdong from South America was seized by police before it could be distributed to other countries and regions,” said Zhai, adding that a number of suspects, including Hong Kong residents, were also detained.
A suspected drug gang and a major cross-border drug trafficking operation, including a distribution center, were also uncovered, Zhai said.
“No matter where the drug traffickers flee, we will track them down and bring them to justice with international cooperation,” he said.
Thanks to deepened cooperation with foreign counterparts, “a number of crossborder trafficking channels and distribution centers have also been broken up, and several drug gangs were uncovered”, Zhai said. “We have achieved a very good start in the fight against drug crimes this year, but we will not let down our guard.”
He said Sino-foreign cooperation will be expanded, and hinted that more targeted campaigns will be launched to crack down on drug-related crimes in the months ahead.