Shenzhen police seize 1b yuan of cocaine in drug bust

Police in Shenzhen said on Thursday that they have seized 1,331 kilograms of cocaine valued at more than 1 billion yuan ($153.85 million) after busting a major cross-border drug trafficking gang in a special operation in cooperation with counterparts from Guangzhou and Zhuhai earlier this year.

According to a statement from the Shenzhen Futian district bureau of public security, it constitutes the largest amount of drugs confiscated in crackdowns in the Chinese mainland thus far.

A total of 19 suspects, including several Hong Kong suspects who have secret society backgrounds, have been detained, and three vehicles used to transport the drugs were also seized during the police operation, said the statement.

The crackdown has struck a heavy blow to the drug and related crimes that used to be active in the southern Chinese region, the statement said.

It took more than 20 police officers three whole days to unpack the huge quantity of cocaine, and investigations found the drug was to be smuggled into Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong and Macao, from South America via water channels, said the statement.