National Narcotics Control Office: The "Golden Triangle" is the general root cause of China's narcotics and has jointly carried out drug law enforcement with many countries in Southeast Asia

Reporter Feng Li reported from Beijing

The "Golden Triangle" is the general root cause of the mainland's drug problem, what targeted measures have been taken by the anti-narcotics departments to crack down on the drug problem from abroad, especially in the "Golden Triangle" region?

On January 19, 2022, a reporter from China Business Daily learned from the Ministry of Public Security that the anti-narcotics department organized the "Clean Edge 2021" special action, fully implemented the "clean source and cut off the flow" anti-drug strategy, focused its work on the southwest direction, and actively carried out anti-drug cooperation with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Security has deployed a special action of "group zero" around the drug problem that most prominently affects the public's sense of security, starting with drug addicts and severely cracking down on drug abuse and trafficking gangs.

Cluster zero to shrink the drug consumer market

Lan Weihong, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Office, deputy director of the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, and first-level inspector, told reporters on January 19, 2022 that in 2021, the Ministry of Public Security successfully cracked a number of major and important cases, and public security organs in various places cracked 349 drug target cases of the Ministry of Public Security, arrested 22,000 criminal suspects, and seized 26.9 tons of various drugs.

At the same time, the Ministry of Public Security carried out in-depth overseas clean-up operations, commanded the public security organs in Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong and other places to work with the Cambodian police to crack 3 major cases of transnational drug trafficking in a row, arrested 46 criminal suspects in Cambodia, seized 295 tons of drugs, a market value of nearly 1.7 billion yuan, achieved major results, and made outstanding contributions to controlling the drug outflow in the "Golden Triangle" region and protecting the vital interests of the people of their own country and neighboring countries.

Lan Weihong said that in recent years, the Ministry of Public Security has deployed a special action of "cluster zero" across the country since 2019, focusing on the drug problem that affects the most prominent sense of security of the masses, starting from drug addicts, starting from drug consumption, severely cracking down on local drug abuse and trafficking gangs, further eliminating the risk of drug abusers causing trouble, and making every effort to enhance the people's sense of security. In the past three years, public security organs across the country have investigated and handled 1,010 "cluster zero" projects, seized 64,700 drug-related personnel, including 40,200 drug addicts (10,500 newly discovered drug users), and seized 7.87 tons of various drugs.

"Generally speaking, the public security organs in various localities have destroyed a number of drug-making and trafficking gangs and drug smuggling, transit distribution, and distribution networks by continuing to carry out the special work of 'breaking zero in clusters,' investigated and punished a number of drug addicts, discovered a number of hidden drug addicts, curbed the high incidence of drug violations and crimes to the greatest extent, and made all-out efforts to shrink the drug consumption market, effectively reducing the harm caused by drugs to the whole society." Lan Weihong said.

Lan Weihong said that in the next step, the Ministry of Public Security will continue to guide local public security organs to continue to enrich the "cluster zero" work model, adhere to the work idea of "sucking must be checked and trafficked, trafficking must be checked and sucked", innovate work measures, take sewage testing and anti-drug big data as the guide, continue to dig deep and eliminate the local drug abuse and trafficking network, further shrink the drug consumption market, and make every effort to enhance the people's sense of security.

Crack down on drug crimes in the "Golden Triangle" and jointly carry out drug law enforcement with many countries in Southeast Asia

The "Golden Triangle" is the general source of the mainland's drug problem.

On January 19, 2022, Min Tianshi, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Office, deputy director of the Anti-Narcotics Information Technology Center of the Ministry of Public Security, and first-level inspector, introduced to reporters that in 2021, the anti-narcotics department organized the "Clean Edge 2021" special action, fully implemented the anti-drug strategy of "clearing the source and cutting off the flow", and focused its work on the southwest direction. The Ministry of Public Security has set up a forward command in Kunming, Yunnan Province, making full use of the working mechanism of the Border Liaison Officer's Office, actively promoting bilateral and multilateral anti-narcotics talks with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries, exchanging drug-related intelligence leads, jointly carrying out anti-drug law enforcement, implementing targeted anti-drug assistance, and promoting the improvement of the border anti-drug coordination mechanism.

It is understood that in 2021, China will meet and talk with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries 33 times, jointly carry out drug law enforcement 26 times, anti-drug operations 6 times, and donate more than 3 million yuan worth of anti-drug law enforcement equipment to Laos, Myanmar and other relevant countries on many occasions.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Security has focused on the investigation of high-risk drug-related personnel on the front line of the China-Myanmar and China-Laos borders, identified a group of drug dealers and drug lords who are entrenched outside the country, and arrested a group of "nails" and fugitives who absconded abroad. Organize the establishment of special working groups in the three border prefectures and cities of Lincang, Pu'er, and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, take the initiative to coordinate cooperation with relevant countries, and concentrate superior forces to carry out the work of mapping and hunting down people who have absconded abroad. In 2021, a total of 150 "nail" drug lords and 4886 fugitives were arrested.

In cracking down on drug crimes in the "Golden Triangle," the public security organs severely cracked down on overseas drug-making factories, coordinated the two battlefields at home and abroad, and organized and carried out the "Qingyuan" No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 operations. In 2021, the Chinese police cooperated with relevant countries to destroy 4 overseas drug processing plants, 5 drug warehouses, and 15 warehouses for precursor chemicals, arrested 162 criminal suspects at home and abroad, and seized 15.48 tons of various drugs, 223 tons of drug-making materials, 17 guns, and 2,010 bullets.

According to Min Tianshi, the "12.30" ministerial-level target case detected in Lincang City, Yunnan Province, destroyed 2 overseas drug-making factories, 5 warehouses for drugs and drug-making materials, arrested 52 suspects at home and abroad, seized 8.67 tons of various drugs, more than 110 tons of drug-making articles, 12 guns, and 1,220 bullets, thus refreshing the record of the first cross-border drug payment in mainland cases, the first number of anti-drug guns abroad, and the first number of overseas drug-making processing plants and warehouses.

Liang Yun, executive deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Office and director of the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said at a press conference of the Ministry of Public Security that in order to coordinate the promotion of the "clean edge" special action, in April and October 2021, the Ministry of Public Security organized two batches of "red and blue confrontation" drug detection skills competition with Yunnan as the main battlefield and the public security anti-drug police as the main body. This is the third consecutive year that the National Narcotics Control Office has organized a "red and blue confrontation" drug detection skills competition. The participating teams directly seized 34 drug cases, arrested 42 drug-related personnel, seized 50.2 kilograms of various drugs, and seized 25 tons of precursor chemicals, effectively blocking the infiltration of drugs into the "Golden Triangle".

(Editor: Meng Qingwei Proofreader: Peng Yufeng)