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China Vows to Strike Hard on "Ice"
China plans to carry out a four-month operation against "ice"-related crime and to strengthen the management of precursor chemical, the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC) said Friday.
The operation will start in September, said Jia Chunwang, NNCC director and minister of public security, this afternoon at a nationwide tele-conference in Beijing.
During the January-July period of this year, more than 130 ice-related cases were cracked, with more than 17 tons of ice confiscated, said Bai Jingfu, NNCC vice-director and vice minister of public security.
He said that currently, the bulk of the ice confiscated in China had been manufactured by criminal rings that have mastered the skill of chemical synthesis, instead of the traditional method of processing ephedrine.
These criminals rings boast advanced processing factories and produce ice for both domestic and overseas customers, the vice minister said.
In the 1991-1999 period, China seized more than 1,500 tons of precursor chemical flown into illicit channels, involving more than 20 kinds of precursor chemical under state control.
In the first half of this year, anti-narcotics officers found more than ten tons of ephedrine flown into illicit channels.
Bai said that due to increased overseas demand for precursor chemical, drug traders at home and abroad have collaborated to conduct smuggling activities.
During the period between 1997 and June of this year, Chinese anti-drug officers cracked some 1,299 such cases, confiscating more than 1,100 tons of precursor chemical.
During the same period, they also stopped more than 4,000 tons of precursor chemical, disguised as legitimate commodities, from being exported overseas, with the help of their overseas counterparts.
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