In another separate development, police in Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province, seized 16 drug dealers, 1,180 grams of heroin and more than 1,000 ecstasy tablets last week.

The arrest of drug smuggler Liu Quan, of Chinese nationality, in Myanmar marks another great success for the narcotics police of the two nations in the fight against drug trafficking, following the arrest of the drug kingpin Liu Ming early this year and the confiscation of hundreds of kilograms of heroin in April, according to Xinhua.

In January, Liu Ming, also of Chinese nationality and head of a drug trafficking group in the Golden Triangle area, was shot dead by police in a co-ordinated raid organized by China and Myanmar. Since then, the remnants of the group, including backbone member 49-year-old Liu Quan, have been hiding in Myanmar.

According to Chinese police, the group under the organization of the two Liu's has smuggled more than 510 kilograms of heroin from the Golden Triangle region to Yunnan, Guangdong and Hunan provinces in China since 1993.

In April, narcotics control police in Yunnan Province held meetings with police of Myanmar requesting co-operation in arresting Liu Quan and other five drug dealers and cracking down on drug processing factories in Myanmar.

After collecting information on Liu's drug trafficking and tracking down clues on his activities, police from Yunnan's Lincang and Myanmar launched a sudden raid and arrested Liu Quan in May.

In addition to breaking up drug smuggling groups, the two sides also destroyed a number of hidden drug-processing workshops, according to People's Daily.

Since early February, Chinese narcotics police have been involved in a nationwide campaign to curb drug production, trafficking and processing; at the same time China has also strengthened co-operation with its neighbors in fighting cross-boarder drug smuggling.

(China Daily June 6, 2002)