16 detained over South China drug manufacturing case

NANNING - Sixteen suspects have been detained in a recent crackdown on drugs in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and neighboring Guangdong Province, local police said Tuesday.

Police from the public security bureau of Laibin City received a report on April 27 that a gang of drug manufacturers from Huizhou City of Guangdong Province gathered in the city to produce ketamine and planned to transport raw materials for drug production from east China's Shandong Province to Xiangzhou County in Laibin.

After investigation, police detained eight suspects at the drug manufacturing site in a tree farm in Xiangzhou County at 4 p.m. on Friday. They also seized about 250 kilograms of ketamine, 1,078 kilograms of semi-finished drugs, equipment for drug manufacturing and four vehicles at the site.

Police seized two other suspects and drug-related money totaling 1.4 million yuan (202,700 U.S. dollars) in a residential community in Laibin City on the same day.

After the drug manufacturing site in Guangxi was busted, the Huizhou police then detained another six suspects from the gang in Guangdong.

Further investigation is under way.