Disabled, ill, moms used to smuggle drugs

Drug traffickers are using people in vulnerable groups as drug smugglers, including the physically and mentally disabled, people with acute and chronic diseases and women who breast-feed their babies, an annual drug control report released on Monday shows.

Police detained more than 4,500 such people across the country last year for trafficking, most of them recruited by drug lords, according to the 2016 report on the drug situation in China, released by the Office of National Narcotics Control Commission, China's top anti-drug body.

Experts said minors often are used in drug smuggling and other crimes worldwide because, if caught, they may face much lighter punishment. The disabled and women with infants are seen as less likely to be searched or interrogated.