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Customs seize record opium haul
Customs in Lincang, a city in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, seized 117.8 kilograms of opium on July 6 in the biggest case of opium smuggling on record, according to the General Administration of Customs. Three traffickers were involved in the case, two of whom escaped. The other was taken into custody. The opium traffickers ship drugs over the border between China and Myanmar. Each year, Lincang customs beat their counterparts in all other provinces in the amount of drugs seized, according to an official from Kunming customs who declined to be named. The official said they received information on June 5 that the shipment would be passing through Lincang. A plan was pieced together and customs officials were on the spot that afternoon to lie in wait for the traffickers just over the border from Myanmar. At midnight on June 5, the three traffickers appeared, together with the opium. The policemen sprung to action but due to the dark, the difficult terrain and the thick jungle, two of the traffickers escaped back into Myanmar, the official said. "If we had more policemen taking part in the action, or if we had better equipment, the two traffickers would not have escaped." Lincang customs have a force of only 30 police officers and besides routine border work, they must also crack down on the rampant drug trafficking in the area, according to the official. The 117.8-kilograms of opium was packaged in 34 small sacks. "In 2002, we cracked another trafficking case involving 107.5 kilograms of opium," he said.
(China Daily 06/14/2005 page3)
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