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 | | Monday, 27 August, 2001, 07:29 GMT 08:29 UK China drug crime soars  Many drugs are smuggled through border villages China says it arrested more than 165,000 people for drugs-related offences in the first half of this year - 28,000 of them on suspicion of producing or trafficking narcotics. Officially published figures also recorded a 75% increase in the amount of heroin seized compared with the same period in 2000. The disclosures came ahead of a high-level meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, where representatives from China, Burma, Laos and Thailand will discuss ways to increase cross-border co-operation in the fight against the drugs trade. The Thai delegate to the meeting said the number of smuggling routes through the region was increasing, as was the production of drugs in the border areas between the countries. He also called for a clampdown on the transfer of chemicals needed to create so-called designer drugs such as Ice and Ecstasy from China to the other countries. Drug seizures China's official news agency, Xinhua, said the amount of Opium seized more than doubled to almost two tonnes, and said it saw a third more drug cases in the same period.
China recently marked World Anti-Drugs Day by executing around 60 traffickers. It has also sent more than 60,000 drug users to compulsory rehabilitation centres and another 11,000 addicts to labour re-education camps this year. In recent years, China has suffered a steep increase in drug abuse and drug-related crime, due in part to the easy availability of heroin from Burma, Laos and Thailand. Last year, China warned it could not cope with the quantities of drugs entering its borders, and called for more international co-operation. Since then, Burma has sent a wanted trafficker back to China, and China has arrested a number of suspected Burmese drug smugglers. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Asia-Pacific stories now:  Links to more Asia-Pacific stories are at the foot of the page. | |
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