Police use satellite imagery to uncover crimes

Police used the Gaofen-1 Satellite database to discover about 10 illegal border crossings in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the China National Space Administration said on Monday.

The ministry also used the satellite to find many poppy plantations in Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the administration said.

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According to the administration, it also detected the largest marijuana cultivation area in Jilin province and Inner Mongolia since 1949, when the people's republic of China was founded, and discovered a oil tanker off the coast of Fujian province believed to be smuggling oil on a large scale.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, all the discoveries will be considered "supporting evidence for the relevant law enforcement authorities to conduct further investigations."