Grim fight on drug smuggling for nation

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Drugs smuggled from abroad, including Southeast Asia and some Central and South Asian countries, are the main sources of underground drug use across China, according to a senior anti-drug official from the Ministry of Public Security.

Border police inspect luggage at a checkpoint in the Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, on May 15. [Photo / Xinhua]

"Despite great efforts in combating cross-border drug trafficking, we're still facing a grim situation in the fight against drugs from abroad," Liu Yuejin, director of the ministry's narcotics department, said in an exclusive interview.

Figures from the ministry show more than 90 percent of heroin and methamphetamine tablets available through China's black market come from Southeast Asia.

Last year, police in Yunnan province seized 5.37 metric tons of heroin - 73 percent of the total nationwide - and 8.95 tons of methamphetamine (55 percent of the nationwide total), smuggled over the border with Myanmar.

Cases of drug smuggling have also risen sharply on the border between China and Vietnam.

Authorities in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region uncovered 3,224 cases last year, seizing 415 kg of heroin, up 100 percent from 2011.

Liu said China borders two major sources of drugs - the Golden Triangle (comprising parts of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar) and the Golden Crescent, made up of parts of Central and South Asia.

Opium poppy planting in the Golden Triangle covered about 40,000 hectares last year, producing more than 60 tons of heroin, according to the ministry.

Liu said there has been rampant smuggling of synthetic drugs in China from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, northern Laos and Vietnam, through border areas between Yunnan and Guangxi.

Poppy planting in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran has reached a total of 154,000 hectares, which can produce more than 370 tons of heroin.

"A large quantity of heroin produced in these areas is usually smuggled to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and transferred to Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, and then into Guangdong province by plane ," Liu said.

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