The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said on Tuesday that local police in Yunnan Province, in southwest China, have broken up a massive drug-trafficking network that spanned 16 provinces and municipalities.
Yunnan police carried out the operation in collaboration with police in other provinces, said Liu Yuejin, deputy of the Anti-drug Bureau of the ministry, at a press conference here.
On February 28, Yunnan police learned about a large drug-trafficking group headed by someone known as "Big Brother Yang" and began to investigate. They eventually uncovered a widespread criminal network that was smuggling drugs in Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong provinces and Chongqing Municipality.
Eventually, the police isolated several trafficking groups that formed the larger ring and destroyed them one by one. The police also uncovered a murder case in which a smuggler was killed by his accomplices so as to get packed drugs out of his stomach, where they had been concealed.
Between March and August, the police arrested 53 people suspected of organizing, directing, supplying and distributing drugs. The police also seized 6.7 kilograms of drugs, 906,000 yuan ($122,000) in cash, and four vehicles used to transport drugs.
