CHINA SAYS ILLEGAL DRUG SEIZURES SOAR IN '98

BEIJING, - China seized more than seven tonnes of
illegal drugs in an intensified crackdown last year, about 19 times
that seized in 1997, state media said on Monday.

Authorities confiscated 2.5 tonnes of heroin, 325 kg (716 lb) of
opium, 195 kg of amphetamines and 48 tonnes of raw chemicals used to
manufacture drugs, the People's Daily said.

Major hauls included 133 kg of heroin from a truck in southwestern
Yunnan province and 4.4 tonnes of marijuana from a boat in southern
Guangdong province, it said.

In 1997, authorities seized 369 kg of drugs.

Police also arrested 1,253 drug smugglers last year in 1,168 cases,
the newspaper said. China often executes drug traffickers after a
public rally designed to deter would-be smugglers.

Drug smuggling was rampant in Yunnan province and southern Guangxi
province, which border opium-growing Southeast Asian states, and was
sweeping into eastern coastal regions, the Xinhua news agency quoted
a public security official as saying.

Officers pledged to intensify the crackdown on drug trafficking by
increasing the number of search squads and police boats as well as
boosting the frequency of patrols, Xinhua said.

Common methods of drug smuggling included hiding contraband in petrol
tankers and employing people who swallowed plastic bags filled with
drugs, Xinhua said.

Drug use in China was nearly wiped out under strict communist curbs,
but has soared in the freer social environment of recent years after
two decades of market economic reforms.

The number of registered drug addicts soared to 540,000 by the end of
1997, up from 148,000 in 1991, officials have said.

Drugs come into China's Yunnan province mostly from the "Golden
Triangle" opium growing region where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar converge.