China's mainland customs and police, in cooperation with police in the Taiwan region and Thailand, successfully cracked a large international drug trafficking ring.

Spokesman Liu Guangping of the General Administration of Customs made the announcement here Wednesday at a news conference saying arrests were made in early February.

The gang was led by a Taiwanese person who was arrested by mainland police in Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province on Feb. 3, 2006, Liu said.

Thanks to information sharing and exchanges between authorities in China's mainland, the island of Taiwan and Thailand, 57.4 kilograms of heroin was seized, Liu said.

The case is a successful model for the cooperation between law enforcement agencies on China's mainland and Taiwan in cracking down on drug trafficking, said Liu.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2006)