Chinese border police seize drugs hidden in coffins

Alert Chinese border guards seized over 60 kilogrammes of narcotics hidden in coffins and arrested a suspected trafficker, police said today as the Communist giant faced an uphill task in combating growing smuggling of drugs.
Border police in southwest China's Yunnan Province bordering Myanmar seized methamphetamine hidden in coffins and arrested a man in this connection, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The 330 bags of drugs were found in a van attempting to enter China from Myanmar on Thursday, after the police received information that the suspect, surnamed Bai, was planning to traffic drugs into the country.
The police said two "empty" coffins inside the van raised their suspicions. They found red powder that smelled like meth at the bottom of the coffins, dismantled them and found the bags of drugs in hidden compartments.

Further investigation into the case is underway, the report said.
Last month, the government said the number of drug addicts in China is still slowly growing.

According to a report released by the National Narcotics Control Commission, there were about 2.51 million drug users in China by end of 2016, an increase of 6.8 per cent year on year.
Among them, about 22,000 people were under 18, and more than 1.46 million were aged from 18 to 35, according to the report, which added that the percentage of new addicts belonging to these two groups dropped in 2016.
The expansion of drug users addicted to heroin slowed in the year, while the number addicted to synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and ketamine, increased faster, the report said.

About 1.52 million drug users were addicted to synthetic drugs in 2016.
China launched a project to promote community drug detoxification and rehabilitation in 2015. The project focused on setting up local institutions and recruiting volunteers. About 81,000 staff and volunteers are now working for community-based rehabilitation programmes.
China's anti-drug efforts have also intensified, with Chinese police arresting 168,000 suspects for drug production or trafficking, and solving 140,000 drug-related criminal cases last year.