ASIAN NEIGHBORS TO COOPERATE ON DRUGS

BEIJING -- China and three Southeast Asian neighbors announced an agreement
Tuesday to step up cross-border police cooperation in the fight against a
booming heroin trade.

The pact came after the first meeting of top anti-drug officials of a
region where gangs that straddle borders have benefited from lack of
coordinated enforcement.

The agreement by China and the countries of the heroin-producing "Golden
Triangle" -- Burma, Laos and Thailand -- stops short of letting police from
one country operate in another.

But it commits them to sharing information and collaborating in tracking
and arresting smugglers.

Trafficking of cheap, abundant Southeast Asian heroin into China -- and to
foreign markets beyond -- has boomed in recent years. Gangs also are
branching out into methamphetamines and other manufactured drugs.

This article was published on Wednesday, August 29, 2001