Major Drug Trafficking, Trading Gang Smashed in Shanghai

Shanghai police have tracked down a major drug trafficking and trading gang and seized 16.14 kg of high-purity heroin and more than 5,000 yuan (about US$602) in cash from the gang's hide-out.

All four members of the gang, two males and two females, were detained by police on the suspicion of trafficking and trading narcotics, said local sources.

The case is the third largest of its kind that Shanghai police have smashed since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Police confiscated 83.5 kg and 29.3 kg of narcotics in the previous two major drug-trafficking cases handled in 1998.

Though use of drugs disappeared on the Chinese mainland for many years, it has made a comeback and become rampant amid economic boom in many places in the country, especially urban areas.

Sources from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Public Security said that Shanghai had 12,000 drug users registered last year, 98 percent of whom are local residents. In 1996, the number of registered drug users was just 5,000.

People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/