Drug bust snags large amounts of meth

Police lay in wait in thick grass for more than 30 hours before raiding a secret drug lab in a forested area of Ruyuan county, Guangdong province, late last month.

"We had to climb over wild thorns and cross barriers set up by the suspects during the special police operation," said Ouyang Zhifang, director of the drug enforcement detachment of the Shaoguan city Bureau of Public Security.

"Police seized 313 kilograms of methamphetamine, commonly known as 'ice', 76 kilograms of semifinished meth, plus plenty of equipment for producing the drug," Ouyang told a news conference on Monday.

Meanwhile, eight suspected drug gang members, including two suspected gang leaders, surnamed Cao and Li, were detained during the Nov 28 operation involving more than 500 police officers.

The gang had contracted out a pond surrounded by forested mountains on four sides, Ouyang said.

"They built several single-story houses, equipped them with air-conditioning facilities and purchased refrigerators, big plastic buckets and rubber gloves," he said.

The secret production base, near Aotou village, was more than 15 kilometers from downtown, and the suspects used a van to help transport materials and drugs along a winding, mountain road, Ouyang said.

"The crackdown on the major drug case has dealt a heavy blow to local drug traffickers and producers," he said.

A police officer with the Guangdong provincial department of public security reiterated that fighting drugs and drug-related crimes is a long-term and difficult task in Guangdong, which has the country's largest number of drug addicts.

He hinted that more campaigns will be launched to fight drugs and related crimes.

Guangdong has been the focus of China's anti-drug campaign for many years, the officer said.

The meth produced in Guangdong represents more than 50 percent of the mainland's total, while the ketamine produced there reaches one-third of the country's users, according to official statistics.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn