Customs officials in Lincang, a city in southwest China's Yunnan
Province, seized 117.8 kilograms of opium on June 6 in the
country's biggest opium smuggling bust, according to the General
Administration of Customs.
Three traffickers were involved in the case; two escaped and the
third was taken into custody.
The opium traffickers regularly shipped drugs across the border
between China and Myanmar.
Officials said they received information on June 5 that a
shipment would be passing through Lincang. A plan was hatched for
customs officials to lie in wait for the traffickers just over the
border from Myanmar.
At midnight on June 5, the three traffickers appeared with the
opium. Policemen sprang on them but conditions were not ideal for a
flawless arrest. It was dark, the jungle thick and the terrain
difficult. Two of the traffickers escaped back into Myanmar.
"If we had more policemen on hand, or if we had better
equipment, the two traffickers would not have escaped," said an
official from Kunming customs who declined to be named.
Lincang customs has a force of only 30 police officers. In
addition to routine border control work, these 30 police officers
have to control the rampant drug trafficking in the area.
The 117.8 kilograms of opium were packaged in 34 small sacks.
"In 2002, we cracked another trafficking case involving 107.5
kilograms of opium," said the official.
(China Daily June 14, 2005)