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Guangzhou a wholesale market for illegal drugs: expert

Drugs

Guangzhou has become a distribution hub for illegal drugs, according to a mainland expert combating the illicit trade.

'Drugs from the Golden Crescent [spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran] could have gone directly to Xinjiang and Gansu , where there are many addicts, but they come to Guangzhou first before being sent back to Xinjiang,' the expert, who requested anonymity, said. 'Guangzhou has become an underground wholesale market for drugs.'

The city was also a conduit for drugs from the Golden Triangle, she said.

But Guangzhou was not just attracting drug supplies from neighbouring regions but from all over the world, including Ecstasy from the Netherlands and ketamine from India.

'I believe they are all coming here because prices are decided here. Prices here are higher than in other parts of the country,' the expert said.

Guangzhou has traditionally been one of the routes for opium produced in the Golden Triangle area, encompassing parts of Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan , to reach the outside world via Hong Kong.

Its emergence as an important drug market is believed to have come about after crackdowns in Thailand blocked the southward route for drugs.

Traffickers needed to get drugs out to the international market through Hong Kong, and Guangzhou was a good transshipment centre as packages of drugs could easily be inserted into bona fide cargo for shipment out of the country, she said.

The Guangdong Public Security Bureau investigated 2,200 drug cases in the first five months of this year, about the same number as in the same period last year, but the number of suspects caught rose 16.8 per cent, to 2,900.

Police seized 120kg of heroin, 230kg of Ice, 108kg of Ecstasy, 750kg of ketamine, and 30.4 tonnes of raw materials for drug making. They also investigated 148 entertainment outlets and detained and questioned 24,000 drug addicts.

The Narcotics Control Bureau said on Thursday that six of the 14 biggest recent drug cases on the mainland were cracked with the participation of Guangdong customs officers.

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