Police have cracked 74,419 drug-related cases, seizing 49,097 suspects and tons of illegal drugs in the first nine months of this year, the office of National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC) told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

They seized 7,167 kilograms of heroin, 1,819 kilograms of opium, 4,511 kilograms of methamphetamine, 879,000 ecstasy pills and 1,593 kilograms of ketamine between January and September this year, said Yang Fengrui, deputy Secretary-General of the NNCC.

Yang said China produces all 23 types of chemicals that can be used to manufacture illegal drugs listed by a UN 1998 Convention, and since the 1990s their diversion for illicit use has become increasingly serious.

In the nine-month period, police seized 131.9 tons of precursor chemicals, said Yang, and the amount smuggled into the Golden Triangle, the second largest heroin production base in the world, was also startling.

Drug traffickers smuggle a large amount of precursor chemicals such as acetic anhydride, chloroform, and hydrochloric acid from China's border areas to the Golden Triangle to produce heroin, said Yang.