Drugs torched in town that provided trigger for first opium war

Mainland customs authorities announced yesterday that they would burn more than two tonnes of drugs in the historic town Humen , Guangdong, to mark today's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Some boxes of drugs were burned yesterday morning in eight cauldrons, which a local customs officer said 'symbolised their determination to crack down on the increasing amount of drugs pouring into the mainland from overseas'.

Yesterday's event was staged in Humen because that was where, 170 years ago, senior Qing dynasty official Lin Zexu burned tonnes of opium smuggled by British businessmen, triggering the first opium war.

A senior officer of the General Administration of Customs' anti-smuggling bureau said cocaine, opium, marijuana and more than a tonne of heroin seized by customs branches in Guangdong since early last year would be destroyed in a more environmentally friendly way, using incinerators, yesterday and today.

The officer said drug smuggling had increased in the past few years.

According to official figures, drug cases shot up 16 per cent last year. Police and customs seized more than 28 tonnes of drugs between January last year and May this year.

Meanwhile, more evidence is showing international drug trafficking syndicates' control has become stronger. Customs say that since 2008, the Golden Crescent region, in the mountain valleys of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has surpassed the Gold Triangle in neighbouring Myanmar, Laos and Thailand as the mainland's biggest source of drugs.