'Huge' pot field spotted by satellite denied by MPS

China's Ministry of Public Security on Monday denied that a huge marijuana field had been detected in Jilin province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region using a high-definition satellite.

According to news portal thepaper.cn, an official from the ministry's drug enforcement division denied the existence of such a field and said the ministry is still in the process of verification and is looking for the source of the information.

The China News Service on Monday quoted the website of the China National Space Administration as saying that the marijuana field spotted by its Gaofen-1 satellite was the largest since the establishment of the republic in 1949.

The original post has been deleted by the space administration as of Monday afternoon.

Nie Lei, a separate official from Inner Mongolia's public security department, denied that a huge marijuana field had been discovered in Inner Mongolia.

Nie added that had never heard of any cooperation between the Narcotics Control Committee and the China National Space Administration.

The deleted post from the space administration's website also said that the Ministry of Public Security has identified a dozen illicit trans-border paths along the China-North Korea border as well as border along the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Interview request from the Global Times to the Ministry of Public Security went unanswered on Monday.

Being at the center of China's anti-terrorism drive, Xinjiang has a borderline of more than 5,600 kilometers long and is adjacent to countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

"Trans-border paths along the border of Xinjiang have always been there. Paths may be easier to find in areas adjacent to Kazakhstan and are difficult to locate in southern Xinjiang," a source close to the matter told the Global Times, adding that the paths are not necessarily used for terrorism activities but also herders.