AN INTERNATIONAL drug-trafficking syndicates appears to be changing smuggling routes out of Yunnan province by setting up new sea and air transshipment centres in China.
The new routes were replacing traditional land transport, the deputy director of Yunnan's Security Bureau, a Mr Yang, told the LUSA news agency in Macau yesterday.
He said drug trafficking had been ''rampant'' in Yunnan since 1988 and acknowledged that in recent years the province had become a transshipment centre for multinational syndicates employing mainlanders for the smuggling of drugs from the ''Golden Triangle'' in Thailand, Laos and Burma to cities such as Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou.
According to Mr Yang, police in Yunnan arrested 300 drug traffickers and seized 210 kilograms of drugs last year. In the first 10 months of this year, police arrested 200 traffickers and seized more than 230 kg of illicit drugs, Mr Yang revealed, adding 46 drug traffickers had been executed this year.
He said syndicates from Hong Kong, Macau and overseas were hiring mainlanders as couriers to smuggle drugs to transshipment centres and final destinations.
Mr Yang also said mainland traffickers had armed themselves with guns and hand grenades, ''firing at police when confronted''.