A police officer shows bags of heroin seized in a crackdown during a press briefing in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on November 18, 2014. Photo: CNS

New | 100,000 users ‘investigated’, 12 tonnes narcotics seized in China's war on drugs

Authorities have arrested almost 24,000 suspects on drug offences and have investigated more than 100,000 users in the past 50 days alone.

James Griffiths

Published: 12:15pm, 19 Nov 2014

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China’s top drug buster has praised the country’s ongoing crackdown against illegal narcotics use and its link to violent crimes, while admitting that it still faced a “grim task” ahead.

Authorities have arrested almost 24,000 suspects on drug offences, investigated more than 100,000 users and seized 12.1 tonnes in various types of ilicit drugs in the past 50 days alone, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Liu Yuejin, director of the Narcotics Control Bureau under the ministry, said: “China is facing a grim task in curbing synthetic drugs”, particularly methamphetamine.

Around 2.76 million people are registered nationwide as drug users, the ministry added.

Liu claimed that the annual economic loss caused by drug abuse could be as much as 500 billion yuan (HK$631 billion).

But the actual number of drug addicts is estimated at more than 13 million, five times the registered number, said Liu.

“Compared with traditional drugs, such as heroin and opium, methamphetamine can easily lead to mental problems. Addicts will be prone to extreme and violent behaviour, including murder and kidnapping.”

Liu also highlighted the risk posed by drug driving, and said the laws against it needed to be strengthened - echoing calls made by lawmakers in October.

Another top drug official, Song Zengliang, blamed the influx of methamphetamine from Southeast Asian countries on a rise in violent crime.

According to , last year police in Yunnan province confiscated more than nine tonnes of methamphetamine – 55 per cent of the national total – that had been smuggled across the border from Myanmar.

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

Song said that China had been conducting joint missions with Laos, Myanmar and Thailand authorities to tackle drug smuggling along the Mekong River.

While the Chinese officials blame their neighbours for the influx of drugs into the country, experts say a large amount of methamphetamine is produced within China itself.

According to United Nations reports, large amounts of methamphetamine are produced in Guangdong province, from where they are smuggled overseas. In 2012, China shut down more than 200 labs producing methamphetamine, UN Office of Drugs and Crime data shows.

This week, police in Guangdong burned 400 tonnes of methamphetamine precursor, the equivalent of 10 private jets. The bonfire came almost a year after a massive police raid in southern China shut down a major production hub for the drug.

In May, Indonesian authorities announced plans to step up monitoring of flights from China, including Hong Kong, in the wake of a “significant” increase in drug trafficking. Last month, top Indonesian general Gatot Nurmantyo blamed an “international conspiracy” for trying to “destroy the Indonesian younger generation” with drugs.

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