South China police seize 3 tonnes of crystal meth

GUANGZHOU -- Police in South China's Guangdong province announced Thursday that they had seized three tonnes of crystal meth, or "ice," during raids Sunday on a village notorious for drugs.

To root out drug production and trafficking in Boshe Village in the city of Lufeng, provincial paramilitary forces and police in four cities launched 109 raids with the help of helicopters and border speedboats, the provincial public security bureau said in a statement.

A total of 182 suspects from 18 drug production and trafficking rings were arrested in and outside of the village and another 23 tonnes of raw materials for drug production were seized, it said.

Qiu Wei, a senior official with the anti-drug department under the provincial public security bureau, said Lufeng has long been notorious for drugs. Over the past three years, it has been providing one-third of the crystal meth nationwide, he said.

In Boshe, the most notorious area for drugs in Lufeng, more than one-fifth of local households were directly involved or had a stake in drug production and trafficking rings, Qiu said.

Guangdong police have detained 10,836 suspected drug traffickers and seized 8.1 tonnes of drugs since it launched the "Thunder Operations" against drug crimes on July 30, 2013, according to Guo Shaobo, deputy director of the provincial public security bureau.