In a joint operation, police forces of China, India, the United States and Hong Kong have smashed a major multinational narcotics ring and seized huge quantities of contraband, a senior Chinese police official said in Beijing on Wednesday.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, Yang Fengrui, told reporters
that the case was a good example for international cooperation in cracking down on cross-border drugs trade.
On May 16, the police forces from China, the United States, India and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of
China jointly smashed the '125' multinational drug ring, capturing 28 criminal suspects, Yang said.
The police also seized 40.2 kg of heroin, over 80 grams of 'ice' and 35 kg of ephedrine from the suspects.
Describing China's anti-drug campaign as an "arduous" task, he said the "golden triangle" (Laos, Myanmar and Thailand) posed the greatest threat to the country's efforts to reduce the menace to the society.
While drugs from abroad were entering China through multiple channels in an aggressive manner, those from the Golden Triangle' posed the greatest threat to the country, he said.
Yang said China had over 1.05 million drug addicts out of which some 740,000 were heroin users.
The Chinese Ministry of Health recently estimated that about 55.3 per cent of the existing 840,000 people infected by
HIV/AIDS virus were through intravenous injections, he said while stating the Chinese government's strong resolve to stamp out drug trafficking.
Yang also defended China's practice of giving death sentence to convicted drug traffickers, which he said acts as a deterrent.
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