Xianjiang used as point of entry to the country

URUMQI - Drug trafficking in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from the neighboring Golden Crescent region continues to rise despite government efforts to combat the problem, officials said.

"We are encouraged by the increasing number of drug smuggling gangs caught each year. At the same time, it shows that international drug trafficking activities in Xinjiang have become more and more active," the director of an anti-drug squad in Urumqi, capital of the region, said on condition of anonymity.

In Urumqi, 70 percent of the drugs come from the Golden Crescent, according to official figures.