Record drug haul nets 6 suspects
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-13 05:52

Police have arrested six suspects in drugs raid that seized more than a ton of the illegal drug ketamine.

"We believe three of those arrested are leading members of a transnational drug trafficking ring, which planned to smuggle drugs through ports in northern China, " Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the narcotics control bureau of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), said yesterday at a news conference in Beijing.

"As far as we know this is the largest amount of ketamine ever seized in the country. "

On September 19, anti-drugs police from Shandong and Guangdong provinces as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, captured six suspects, and confiscated 1,010 kilograms of ketamine, two cars and 80,000 yuan (US$9,800) in Yantai, Shandong Province.

A two-month investigation into the transnational drug ring found that traffickers were paying HK$80,000 (US$10,000) per kilogram to purchase ketamine manufactured in India. Investigators say dealers then planned to sell the drug in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, for 120,000 yuan (US$14,800) per kilogram.

"Ketamine was stored in a container that was transported from India, via Singapore and South Korea, to Yantai in East China's Shandong Province," Liu said.

Suspects include Kung Ka Sam and Xiang Bao who have Canadian nationality, one Hong Kong citizen Chen Huanxin and one mainlander Yang Weiyuan.

(China Daily 10/13/2005 page5)