The Ministry of Public Security announced today that Chinese,
Myanmar, Laotian and Thai police worked together to completely
destroy a cross-border drug-trafficking network this month.
Seventy Chinese, Myanmar and Laotian suspects have been
arrested, said the ministry's Border Defense Bureau at a press
conference.
Police have seized 726.8 kilograms of heroin, over 600,000 yuan
(US$74,200), HK$22,200 (US$2,900), 4.1 million Baht (US$100,300), 8
houses, 3 estates covering 1,115 square meters, 12 cars, 36 guns, 6
rocket launchers, 33 grenades, 1,586 bullets and two
transmitter-receivers.
"The victory not only indicated the Chinese, Myanmar, Laotian
and Thai governments' strong will and efforts to resolve the drug
problem in the area, but also showed their enforcement departments'
combined power for striking transnational drug-trafficking," said
Zhang Chongde, deputy director of the bureau.
According to Zhang, the story started on November 2 last year
when Yunnan
Border Defense General Brigade received information that a large
amount of drugs would be smuggled into China from Myanmar.
The National Narcotics Control Commission and public security
ministry asked them start investigations, and four days later they
discovered 220 kilograms of heroin on two Myanmar trucks heading to
China and arrested two suspects.
In the following months, local police seized 10.8 kilograms of
heroin and detained 11 more suspects, destroying two major
drug-trafficking networks in Guangdong
and Gansu.
The police identified Han Yongwan as behind the network, and he
was listed China's most wanted drug trafficker in June.
In September, Yunnan investigators acquired new intelligence
that Han was trafficking a new batch of drugs in Myanmar, so the
National Narcotics Control Commission reported this to the Myanmar
government and organized a special joint investigating team.
On September 10, the team seized 496 kilograms of heroin, and on
September 22, armed with information from Thai police, they
cooperated with Laotian police to arrest Han Yongwan and his
accomplice A Shou who had escaped to Laos.
Chinese police arrested another major suspect, Duan Biwu, on
September 23, and on October 2 Myanmar police delivered Han Yongwan
and A Shou to China.
Myanmar police at the press conference expressed their
appreciation for the cooperation amongst the four nations' police
forces and said they would like more collaboration to combat
transnational drug-trafficking.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, October 18,
2005)