The Ministry of Public Security announced today that Chinese, Myanmar, Laotian and Thai police worked together to completely destroy a cross-border drug-trafficking network this month.

Seventy Chinese, Myanmar and Laotian suspects have been arrested, said the ministry's Border Defense Bureau at a press conference.

Police have seized 726.8 kilograms of heroin, over 600,000 yuan (US$74,200), HK$22,200 (US$2,900), 4.1 million Baht (US$100,300), 8 houses, 3 estates covering 1,115 square meters, 12 cars, 36 guns, 6 rocket launchers, 33 grenades, 1,586 bullets and two transmitter-receivers.

"The victory not only indicated the Chinese, Myanmar, Laotian and Thai governments' strong will and efforts to resolve the drug problem in the area, but also showed their enforcement departments' combined power for striking transnational drug-trafficking," said Zhang Chongde, deputy director of the bureau.

According to Zhang, the story started on November 2 last year when Yunnan Border Defense General Brigade received information that a large amount of drugs would be smuggled into China from Myanmar.

The National Narcotics Control Commission and public security ministry asked them start investigations, and four days later they discovered 220 kilograms of heroin on two Myanmar trucks heading to China and arrested two suspects.

In the following months, local police seized 10.8 kilograms of heroin and detained 11 more suspects, destroying two major drug-trafficking networks in Guangdong and Gansu.

The police identified Han Yongwan as behind the network, and he was listed China's most wanted drug trafficker in June.

In September, Yunnan investigators acquired new intelligence that Han was trafficking a new batch of drugs in Myanmar, so the National Narcotics Control Commission reported this to the Myanmar government and organized a special joint investigating team.

On September 10, the team seized 496 kilograms of heroin, and on September 22, armed with information from Thai police, they cooperated with Laotian police to arrest Han Yongwan and his accomplice A Shou who had escaped to Laos.

Chinese police arrested another major suspect, Duan Biwu, on September 23, and on October 2 Myanmar police delivered Han Yongwan and A Shou to China.

Myanmar police at the press conference expressed their appreciation for the cooperation amongst the four nations' police forces and said they would like more collaboration to combat transnational drug-trafficking.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, October 18, 2005)