It has been announced that, last year, the Armed Police Frontier
Defense Force cracked 1,236 cases of illegal emigration involving
2,849 stowaways and 452 "snakeheads" (people smugglers).
They also dealt with 2,848 cases of smuggling of goods with a
total value of 230 million yuan (US$27.79 million).
According to a meeting of the defense force's Party Committee,
cooperation with neighboring countries has been formalized and
helped make a concentrated effort against crimes involving guns and
drugs.
In 2004, they uncovered 134 cases involving guns and confiscated
1,009 firearms. They also resolved 3,447 drug-related cases and
captured 4,344 suspects and over 3,667 kilograms of drugs.
In all, 9,782 criminal cases were handled and 619 suspects who
were listed as wanted on the Internet seized, as well as 24,053
other criminal cases.
On May 11, with help from Shanghai
and Jiangsu
police, frontier police from Fuzhou, Fujian
Province solved a major interprovincial drug producing and
trafficking case, arresting 17 suspects and confiscating 17,224
grams of ketamine and over 120,000 injecting vials of ketamine
hydrochloride.
Drugs were the main focus for Yunnan's frontier police: they
cracked 3,219 drug-related cases, captured 3,906 suspects and
confiscated 3,359 kilograms of drugs and 7.7 tons of chemicals used
to manufacture them.
In recent years, frontier police have strengthened work against
illegal emigration by issuing wanted circulars on the Internet and
offering rewards for the capture of "snakeheads." Over 202 people
who had organized illegal emigration were sentenced to imprisonment
last year.
Breakthroughs were also made in international cooperation over
the management of marine boundaries. Two agreements with Vietnam
came into effect in 2004, resulting in patrols and supervision
along China's first marine border in the Beibu Gulf.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan January 31, 2004)