China targets drug smuggling

The Beijing drugs summit is the first time the four nations have met at such a high level to discuss the problem

By CNN's Kirsty Alfredson in Hong Kong

BEIJING, China -- Drug control ministers from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet in Beijing on Tuesday as Chinese authorities report a sharp increase in narcotic-related crimes.

The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reports that police cracked 159,565 narcotics-related crimes in the first six months of 2001, 32 percent more than over the same period in 2000.

The National Commission for Narcotics Control said more than 165,000 people were "seized for involvement in drug-related crimes" and of that number 28,000 were investigated for smuggling, trading, transporting and producing drugs.

It is an increase of 15.4 percent on the first six months of last year.

Xinhua said the rise in the number of arrests results from a crackdown by the government and includes a united border control effort to block smuggling illegal drugs.

Drug manufacturing a major scourge

In an attempt to stop cross border smuggling, senior government officials from China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet Monday ahead of the ministerial meeting.

The ministers are Soubanh Srithirath, minister to the president 's office of Laos, Tin Hlaing, minister of home affairs of Myanmar, and Thamarak Issarangkun Na Ayutthaya, minister of prime minister's office of Thailand.

The "Golden Triangle" -- a remote mountainous area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, in the shadow of China -- has long been a major source of opium poppies for the world's heroin trade.

Historically heroin has made its way into China from the region but Thai authorities are now concerned about chemicals from China finding their way to laboratories to make narcotics.

Production of opium poppies has declined in recent years and instead the "Golden Triangle" has exploded as a manufacturing center for amphetamines.

This cheap synthetic drug has already had a devastating impact in countries like Thailand, where it is considered worse than the heroin scourge ever was.

The United Nations Drug Control Program had identified China and India as the main sources of ephedrine -- the key precursor chemical used to make amphetamines.

Drug summit a Thai initiative

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji offered to host the summit aimed at suppressing the flow of illegal drugs out of the "Golden Triangle" during is visit to Thailand in May.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who will visit China this week, put the idea of a summit to Zhu.

It is the first time the four nations have met at such a high level to discuss the menace of illegal drugs.

The U.N. representative for drug and control, Sandro Calvari told CNN the Beijing drugs summit was "big news" as it was the first time the four countries considered action amongst themselves without international facilitation.

He there already existed a four-step plan to combat the drugs problem, which included awareness of smuggling and drug taking, how to reduce demand, law enforcement and how illicit crops could be replace by other forms of agriculture.

Calvari said the UN had offered to monitor the programs.