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Suspected members of a female drug gang were arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking on Monday in Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China, as part of a massive crackdown by police on narcotics trafficking.
Seven women were arrested and 3,312 grams of heroin seized by anti-drug police following a tip-off from the intelligence department.
Five suspects - Xu Xiaosan, 44, Wu Youqiao, 52, Wu Youjuan, 33, Wu De'an, 34, and Wang Jincong, 45 - all from Yunnan Province, were arrested at Chongqing Caiyuanba train station.
Two other suspected female drug traffickers, allegedly belonging to the same gang, were arrested in early April on suspicion of smuggling heroin from Myanmar to China.
China, Viet Nam and Cambodia border the Golden Triangle area - a triangular area bordering Thailand, Myanmar and Laos notorious for drug production.
In order to block the flow of drugs from this area, China has begun to intensify its anti-drug co-operation with the other five to crack down on international drug crimes.
In a separate incident in East China's city of Xiamen, customs officers confirmed on Tuesday that Li Yuzhang from Taiwan Island had been executed for drug trafficking.
The officers said Li, 51, was detained by local customs officers after he was found with 4,185 grams of heroin on him on September 18, 2000 at Gaoqi International Airport in Xiamen.
The Xiamen Intermediate People's Court sentenced Li to death on March 27 last year. On July 25 last year, the Fujian Provincial People's Higher Court upheld the ruling.
With approval from China's Supreme People's Court, Li was executed on June 24.
Customs officers in Xiamen have uncovered 20 cases of drug trafficking since 2000, seizing a total of 74,972 grams of a variety of drugs and arrested 28 suspects. Taiwanese passengers were involved in almost all the cases.
Customs officers at Gaoqi International Airport have seized 15 Taiwanese passengers involved in trafficking since 2000.
China has detained 15,000 suspect drug dealers and seized 2.2 tons of heroin, 1.2 tons of opium and 2 tons of methamphetamine ("ice'') in the first five months of the year.
The number of registered drug addicts in China has risen from 681,000 in 1999 to 860,000 in 2000.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2002)
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