Net the main channel as drug crimes soar
Print Edition
POLICE arrested 189,313 suspects involved in narcotics-related crimes over the last 17 months, the Supreme People's Procuratorate revealed on Saturday.
There were 217,503 prosecutions for drug offenses from the beginning of 2015 to the end of May this year, it said.
“Despite the prosecutions and arrests, drug-related crimes have risen each year, with new drugs springing up and criminals changing their methods,” the SPP said in a statement.
The Internet has emerged as a major channel for such crimes, it said. Criminals buy the raw materials and sell the final products online, and they use apps such as QQ or WeChat to contact buyers and sellers, and Alipay to pay. They also send products via courier services, in a bid to avoid law enforcement checks.
The SPP ordered heightened monitoring of narcotics-related transactions on WeChat and Alipay, and improved courier management, including requiring firms to record the real names of senders and receivers.
It suggested authorities improve supervision of the legitimate drug market, with a particular focus on the wholesale purchasing of psychiatric medicines, which can be used in the production of illegal narcotics.
The police will also inspect hotels and entertainment venues regularly, it said.
Meanwhile, Chinese customs has confiscated 15.6 tons of smuggled drugs since 2014, according to the General Administration of Customs.
The drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and opium, were confiscated in 1,091 cases involving more than 1,055 suspects.
Most were discovered in checks on tourists, postal packages and courier deliveries, accounting for 474 cases.
There were fewer cases of drugs being smuggled via freight, but the shipments intercepted were large. For example, Guangzhou customs in south China’s Guangdong Province found 339 kilograms of methamphetamine in two freight shipments.
Smugglers are increasingly inventive at concealing contraband, say officials. Shanghai customs intercepted cocaine dissolved in red wine, and Qingdao customs found cocaine in plastic bags sewn into underwear.
Smugglers have also been hiring or coercing pregnant women, minors, the elderly, and college-educated women to carry drugs.
China has been active in global cooperation efforts to fight drug smuggling. A global customs enforcement operation, codenamed "SKY-NET,” resulted in the interception of 18.6 tons of illicit goods by the end of 2015.
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