Police have identified 113 suspects after three major drug gangs were busted in Huizhou, Guangdong province, during special operations on Wednesday morning.
The suspects include three Taiwan residents who were suspected of selling drugs produced in Guangdong to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao as well as to other countries and regions, according to Guo Shaobo, deputy director of the Guangdong Department of Public Security.
"Meanwhile Guangdong police are seeking help from other nations and regions to help identify escaped drug traffickers who have come from abroad through the Interpol channels," Guo said at a press conference in the Guangdong provincial capital on Thursday afternoon.
"Guangdong attracts the country's largest number of foreign drug traffickers who come to hide in Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan in the Pearl River Delta," Guo said.
And both domestic and overseas drug traffickers and producers have continuously tried to build Guangdong, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and provides convenient transportation, into a major drug distribution center, Guo said.
Guangdong police, together with public security units in Yunnan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, seized 375 kilograms of ketamine, commonly known as K-powder, 40 kg of cocaine and more than 20,000 ecstasy pills during the operations, which were launched concurrently in 10 cities within five provinces at 4 am on Wednesday.
Police busted two secret drug production locations and four warehouses, and seized plenty of raw materials, production equipment and tools during the operations, in which more than 2,000 officers participated.
In addition to domestic markets, the drugs produced in Guangdong have also been sold to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries and regions, Guo said.
In Huizhou alone, police detained 77 suspects after they destroyed a secret drug production base and four warehouses. And 13 other suspects were detained in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Shaoguan and Shanwei.
Also, three suspects were detained in Yunnan, four in Jiangsu, 14 in Jiangxi and another two in Fujian. An underground drug production base was also raided in Jiangxi
A police officer from Huidong county was seriously injured after he was hit by a car being driven by a suspect during the operation in Huidong.
The officer Zhang Yanxiong who became faint when he was sent to the local hospital, has been out of danger after staying overnight in the hospital for treatment, Guo said.
Guo said the crackdown has dealt a heavy blow to drug production and related crimes in the eastern part of Guangdong province.
But he admitted fighting drug and related crimes is a long-term, touch-and-go task in Guangdong, which has registered more than 370,000 drug addicts, representing more than one-sixth of all drug addicts on the Chinese mainland.
Huidong county under the administration of Huizhou is a major ketamine source in Guangdong province and the whole country.
And the ketamine produced in Huidong usually accounts for more than 20 percent of the country's total while methamphetamine, commonly known as the ice drug, produced in Lufeng under the administration of Shanwei, also in the eastern part of the province, makes up more than 30 percent of the country's total, Guo said.
Guangdong has been the focus of China's anti-drug campaign for many years.
To bring drug and related crimes under control, more special operations will be launched in the following months, he said.
