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Giant drug ring busted
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CHINA has cracked its largest drug smuggling racket in half a century and arrested a heroin tycoon considered a key figure in the Golden Triangle drug-producing area, State media reported on Saturday.
Police in southwestern Yunnan Province caught up with Tan Xiaolin after a year-long manhunt that involved intensive co-operation with police in Myanmar, where Tan had sought refuge, Xinhua News Agency said.
Tan was tracked down by Myanmar authorities on April 20 on the basis of intelligence provided by Chinese police, and was handed over to Chinese authorities three days later, the agency said.
Tan, born in 1962 in China's southwestern Sichuan Province, went to Myanmar in 1993 and eventually took control of the largest armed drug smuggling groups in the Golden Triangle, it said.
Chinese police had followed Tan's operations, which focused on drug trafficking and money laundering, for several years and gathered a massive amount of evidence against him, Xinhua said.
Prior to Tan's arrest in Myanmar, Chinese police rounded up 18 members of his gang operating inside China, bringing to 39 the total number of his collaborators arrested since last year.
Along with the arrest of the gang members, Chinese police also confiscated three tonnes of heroin, 28 motor vehicles, advanced telecommunications equipment and a large amount of drug money.
Heroin trafficking has been on the rise in recent years in China. The drug is often smuggled into China via border regions near Myanmar and Laos and then re-exported through Hong Kong, Xinjiang or even Beijing or Shanghai by air.
Chinese police have stepped up their efforts to combat the trafficking, arresting more than 4,900 alleged drug smugglers and seized five tonnes of drugs in the first five months of the year, the China Daily also said on Saturday.
China is also seeking to stamp out cross-border trade in drugs by increasing co-operation with neighbouring countries.
China and Myanmar, along with Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, signed an agreement in 1995 to work together to fight narcotics trafficking by reducing demand, boosting law enforcement and encouraging crop substitution.(SD-Agencies)
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