Fourteen people, including two from Taiwan and three from Myanmar, were apprehended in southwest China's Yunnan Province in operations against drug trafficking, said local police on Tuesday.

Police in Yuxi city also seized 41.7 kilograms of ice (methamphetamine) and ephedrine, illegal proceeds of more than 2 million yuan (about 263,157 U.S. dollars) and four vehicles used to transport drugs.

According to a suspect surnamed Chen or Chan from Taiwan, the gang has been smuggling drugs from Myanmar into China. The drugs have been sold in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, since January, said Zhong Mingliang with the Yuxi Public Security Bureau.

The Taiwan suspect was caught in Mojiang county on Nov. 10, when police checked a sedan and found some 60 lumps of ice weighing 11.9 kg.

Using this evidence, police soon captured another 12 suspects in the scenic city of Lijiang and in Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xishuangbanna, which is on the border of China and Myanmar.

Further details were not yet available, since the case remains under investigation.

Yunnan is a major route for drug smugglers from the "Golden Triangle", which lies along the Mekong River in Laos, Myanmar and northern Thailand and is one of the world's most productive poppy-growing regions.

Last year, police seized 4.2 tons of heroin, 3.3 tons of ice and 1.5 tons of opium in the province.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2007)