Police have seized 15.43 kg of heroin and arrested three suspected drug traffickers in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities revealed Wednesday.

Police pulled over a mini-van on a highway near Baoshan City on Dec. 17 last year, said a spokesman with the Baoshan Municipal Bureau of Public Security. A search of the vehicle turned up the drugs as well as a handgun and ammunition.

Police in Yunnan seized 9.6 tons of drugs in the first 11 months last year, more than double the four tons seized in the whole of 2005, which accounted for 80 percent of the national total during the period, said Sun Dahong, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department.

Police seized 3.87 tons of heroin, 3.71 tons of methamphetamine, or "ice", 1.38 tons of opium and 0.64 ton of other drugs, Sun said.

They arrested 11,976 suspects, including 35 notorious drug dealers, in the 9,959 drug trafficking cases, he said.

Bordering Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, Yunnan faces a major problem in coping with drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle, the world's most famous drug-producing area along the Mekong River delta.

In 2005, Yunnan seized more than 4,000 kg of drugs and arrested 4,600 suspected drug dealers. Nationwide, police seized 6.9 tons of heroin and 5.5 tons of "ice".

Chinese police have stepped up efforts to crack down on drug-related crime, uncovering 36,400 cases and seizing 45,100 suspects in the first 11 months of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)