China's anti-drug efforts in the past year resulted in the
cracking of several key transnational drug trafficking cases and
the planting of opium replacement crops in the "Golden Triangle"
areas, China's police said on Wednesday.
On September 17, police in Yunnan Province and Shanghai broke a
transnational drug trafficking ring involving 13 suspects and 430
kilograms of drugs, according to the Ministry of Public
Security.
Cooperation with police in the United States and the United Arab
Emirates helped to break a major drug trafficking ring on July 31
with two foreign suspects arrested and two kilograms of heroin
seized.
Collaboration with Russian police led to the seizure of 1.11
kilogram of methamphetamine, or "ice," in December last year and
discovery of a ring that had been smuggling drugs from northeast
China's Heilongjiang and Liaoning Provinces and southeast China's
Guangdong Province to Russia.
China was experiencing an increase in drug trafficking from the
Golden Triangle, an area along the Mekong River delta, including
Myanmar and Laos, and the Golden Crescent area in western Asia.
The government had launched opium replacement planting schemes
in Myanmar and Laos and other neighboring countries. Rubber, tea
and other cash crops were grown as substitutes.
With the help of China and the international community, the
opium poppy cultivation acreage in the "Golden Triangle" was
reduced to 24,160 hectares, down 85 percent from the figure eight
years ago, the ministry said.
The opium poppy cultivation acreage in Myanmar had dropped by
108,800 hectares or 83 percent from the figure in 1998.
The government also allocated 250 million yuan (US$31.25
million) to support Chinese companies in opium replacement planting
in neighboring countries.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2006)
