Joint effort to combat cross-border drug crimes

BEIJING - An international campaign involving 24 countries was launched Friday in Beijing to fight against cross-border narcotics-related crimes.

Named Joint Force 2012, the campaign was initiated by China's drug control authorities and later joined by the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Afghanistan and 18 other countries -- who vowed to strengthen cooperation against cross-border drug-related crimes.

From July 20 to September 20, drugs control authorities from the participating countries will make coordinated efforts with China to check and seize narcotics targeting China's major ports, flights and postal services.

All the participating countries will also investigate drug-related crimes through more than 1,500 clues that China has provided to those countries at the meeting.

China pays great importance to the work combating the spread of drugs and actively promote cross-border cooperation in drug control. In 2011, 1,399 drug-related crime cases involving foreigners were uncovered by Chinese authorities. A total of 1,723 suspects were caught, and 3.9 tonnes of drugs seized.

Since April this year, 2,599 drug-related cases were uncovered in China, with 2,737 suspects arrested and 6,927 kg of drugs seized.