Beijing on Tuesday launched a 10-day drive to crack down on drug trafficking which has been on the rise in the past month in the Chinese capital.

The massive campaign, planned from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8, involves local authorities of public security, customs, frontier defense, civil aviation, railway, highway, post and logistics, said Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The police chief said they will impose a "heavy-fisted crackdown" on drug trafficking to cut the channels for drugs to flow into Beijing.

The Capital International Airport, the city's three railway stations, buses, subways, entertainment venues and hotels will be the major places in the campaign, said Zhao Wenzhong, director of the bureau's drug control section.

Last year, Beijing Customs cracked 12 cases of drug smuggling and seized 17 kg of drugs, but in January this year alone, the Customs cracked five drug smuggling cases, seized nearly eight kg of drugs, and captured six suspects, including five foreigners, according to Fu Zhenghua, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Drug Control.

"International traffickers are taking Beijing as a transfer station for their cross-border drug smuggling, as the Chinese capital has advantages in air, railway and highway transportation," Fu said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)