A top border police official said yesterday the authorities had handled nearly 2,000 drug-smuggling cases, arrested over 2,000 criminal suspects and seized approximately 1.9 tons of drugs in the first half of this year.

 

Police also stopped around 4,500 attempts to smuggle drugs across China's borders, arrested about 5,100 suspects and seized 4.5 tons of drugs in 2005, Chen Weiming, director of the Ministry of Public Security's frontier management bureau told reporters.

The value of the drugs seized in 2,500 cases since July 2005, Chen said, was 240 million yuan (US$30 million). He added that more than 1,100 Chinese were caught trying to leave the country illegally in the first six months of the year, a drop of 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

 

"Border police also effectively stemmed Chinese citizens crossing borders for gambling and logging," Chen said. In addition, more than 1,300 Chinese were caught trying to cross the border illegally in the second half of last year, a 15 percent decrease year-on-year, he said. "The trend of a high incidence of Chinese citizens' illegal emigration was effectively stopped," Chen said.

 

Police along China's 22,000 kilometers of land borders with 14 neighboring countries and along more than 18,000 kilometers of coastline are on constant guard against those who might try to cross the border illegally, he said.

  

(China Daily July 19, 2006)