Police have seized 48.4 kilograms of the party drug ketamine worth an estimated 3.5 million yuan (US$ 447,000) and arrested 14 suspected drug traffickers in south China's Guangdong Province, local authorities said Monday.

The 14 suspects were from a drug trafficking gang that transported by boat drugs from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, a coastal city of Guangdong.

The police began the operation against the gang on Nov. 15 after a six month investigation.

Police arrested all the key members of the gang and seized the drugs from seven hideouts in Shenzhen.

Chinese police have stepped up efforts to crack down on drug-related crimes as they investigated 36,400 cases and nabbed 45,100 suspects in the first 11 months of last year.

Between January and November, police seized 4.79 tons of heroin,1.52 tons of opium, 4.9 tons of crystallized methamphetamine (commonly known as "ice"), 329,000 tablets of ecstasy, 1.5 tons of ketamine and 267.5 tons of chemicals used to produce drugs, said Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the anti-narcotics bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2007)