Guangdong crackdown hurting overseas drug traffickers

Drug-related crime involving foreigners has been dealt a heavy blow after a number of overseas drug gangs were busted in Guangdong province in recent months, a senior provincial police officer said.

Guo Shaobo, deputy director-general of the Guangdong Department of Public Security, said police in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, detained 124 suspects in a raid at a hotel in August.

"Ninety-nine of the drug suspects detained in the raid are African," Guo said at a news conference in the southern metropolis on Monday.

Police seized 175 kilograms of drugs and four guns during the operation.

On March 18, Guangzhou police, in cooperation with their counterparts in Foshan, detained three Nigerian drug suspects in an operation in Foshan, about 20 kilometers from Guangzhou.

Police seized 5.05 kilograms of methamphetamine, commonly known as "ice".

Meanwhile, Shenzhen police detained seven suspects — a Singaporean, three Hong Kong residents and three mainlanders — in a raid on a drug gang on April 10. Police seized more than 180 kilograms of drugs in the operation.

Domestic and overseas drug traffickers and producers have continuously tried to build Guangdong, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, into a major drug distribution center, he said.

According to Guo, police across Guangdong detained 20,403 suspects in 18,923 drug cases since last July, when the province launched a campaign code-named Leiting Anti-Drug Operation to fight drug-related crimes.

A total of 320 drug gangs were busted and 361 drug-production bases were raided during the campaign.

A total of 14.1 metric tons of drugs were seized, including 6.3 tons of "ice" and 5.6 tons of ketamine, as well as more than 320 tons of chemical products used for producing drugs.

"The amount of drugs that was seized in Guangdong in the past 10 months witnessed a year-on-year growth of 280 percent," Guo said.

Also seized was 159.5 million yuan ($26 million) in drug money and 461 vehicles that were used to transport drugs.