Hundreds of police raid drug, gun factories in southern China
Five suspects held after police operation in two villages in the Guangxi region
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 17 June, 2015, 1:06pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 17 June, 2015, 1:06pm
Kwong Man-ki
[email protected]
A police officer and sniffer dog involved in the raids. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Hundreds of police have raided drug and gun factories in two villages in southern China.
More than 600 police were involved in the operation near Wuzhou in the Guangxi region on Monday night, the news website Chinanews.com reported.
Five people were arrested during the raids in the villages of Taiping and Heping.
Police were quoted as saying the five suspects had a history of drug use and alleged robbery and extortion.
They were also said to be suffering from infectious diseases, the report said.
Police seized 12 homemade guns and a number of tools for making firearms in Heping.
Officers destroyed a suspected drug production factory in Taiping and about 1kg of the drug Ice, or crystal methamphetamine, was also found. An imitation gun was seized.
Police said drugs and firearms offences were a serious problem in the villages and had harmed the lives of people in the area.
China’s National Narcotics Control Commission said last month that there had been a rapid increase in the number of people around the country addicted to synthetic drugs such as crystal meth.
Police in Guangdong province seized more three tonnes of the drug in a series of raids at the beginning of this year around one village near Lufeng.