China鈥檚 drug smugglers becoming 鈥榤ore organized and professional鈥
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DRUG abuse is costing China 500 billion yuan (US$80.5 billion) a year and, in 2014, as many as 49,000 lives, according to a National Narcotics Control Commission report.
China has intensified its crackdown on drugs as the rise of a new urban class with greater disposable incomes has fueled a surge in the number of drug addicts, the report said.
Its fight against drug abuse has seen the arrest of a string of celebrities, including the son of kung fu movie star Jackie Chan. Jaycee Chan, 32, was released in February after serving six months on drug charges.
China has more than 14 million drug users, Liu Yuejin, assistant minister of public security, yesterday told a news conference on the report, issued ahead of tomorrow’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
That means one of every 100 Chinese may have used drugs, said Liu.
“The direct economic losses caused by drug use in the country have hit 500 billion yuan annually,” Liu said. Drug abuse had killed at least 49,000 registered users by the end of 2014 and fueled a rise in crimes such as murder, abduction and rape, he added.
China’s share of synthetic drug users eclipsed heroin users for the first time last year, according to the report.
By the end of 2014, 49.4 percent of the 2.95 million registered drug users in China took synthetic drugs, up from 2010’s 28 percent, while those who took heroin accounted for 49.3 percent.
Among the 480,000 new names added to the list of registered drug users last year, those who took synthetic drugs accounted for 79.1 percent, according to the report. Most were aged between 18 and 35.
The “Golden Triangle,” the region at the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, remained the largest source of drugs, the report said, with more than 90 percent of the 9.3 tons of heroin and 11.4 tons of methamphetamine pills seized in China last year from there. The report also named South America and the “Golden Crescent,” a region at the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as major sources.
To fight this, China was strengthening law enforcement cooperation with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and other countries, Liu said.
“We have given them relatively large assistance with the aim of improving the capacity of these countries to combat drug crime and prevent, from the source, more drugs flowing into China,” he added.
Within its borders, China’s southern and southeastern provincial areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Sichuan are among the largest cradles of drug trafficking.
More than 75 percent of the 13.7 tons of crystal meth and about 70 percent of the 11.2 tons of ketamine seized last year originated from Guangdong.
The report said 1,832 drug trafficking suspects from 44 countries and regions in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia were caught in China last year.
The report also noted an increase in the cultivation of cannabis in 2014. It was found in 25 provincial areas with criminals hiring local farmers to plant, sell and transport marijuana in China’s northeastern regions.
The report said drug smuggling is rampant and “more and more organized and professional.”
“While traditional drug trafficking such as concealment in human bodies or cars and trafficking by road are still prevalent, new methods have emerged, such as trafficking online, by post, by air express and through the logistics system,” it said.
Suspects included workers, farmers, students and private business owners, but nearly 70 percent were unemployed, mostly from underdeveloped areas. Tempted by profits, they are hired or used by drug dealers to engage in trafficking, which “not only endangers society, but is harmful to themselves and their families,” the report said.
“To dodge law enforcers, criminals have changed their trafficking vector to sea, air or post,” it said.
“It is common to find drugs hidden in personal belongings, consigned luggage, human bodies, cars or in postal parcels, and cases related to simultaneous trafficking of guns and drugs. Armed transportation of drugs and violent resistance of law enforcers happens from time to time.”
Drugs were not only brought to China, domestic production of crystal methamphetamine, ketamine and other new psychoactive substances went in the other direction, the report said.
Police closed nearly 1,500 drug cases committed by foreigners last year, the report said. African drug gangs have been a problem in Guangdong Province for a long time. They now conspire with Pakistani and other groups to recruit couriers of various nationalities, it said.
In December 2014, the police launched a campaign against Internet drug crime, targeting seven major cases involving nearly 100 chat groups on Tencent QQ, an instant messaging service, and about 2,000 QQ accounts.
The police seized or monitored more than 700 suspects across China as well as in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Drug traffickers communicate with each other through instant messages, open online stores to do deals, pay through online payment systems and deliver drugs through logistics services.
“Such approaches challenge law enforcement agencies,” the report said.
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