Heightened awareness of trafficking reduces cases

A crackdown and tightened supervision have helped curb the sending of contraband through postal and express delivery channels, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

While the rapid development of China's postal and express delivery industry in recent years has made lives much easier, crimes that capitalize on express delivery channels, such as mailing drugs, have also been on the rise, said the SPP.

Through on-the-spot investigations and inquiries to the State Post Bureau, the Office of the National Narcotics Control Commission and other departments, the SPP found a number of problems in the delivery industry, such as the need to improve security supervision, the inadequate implementation of that supervision, and both an insufficient awareness of security and an insufficient response to security, said Yuan Ming, head of the SPP's second procuratorial office.

Supervision of the delivery sector involves multiple administrative departments and weaknesses have restricted its healthy development, he said.

To strengthen supervision and plug management loopholes in express deliveries, the SPP issued a procuratorial suggestion to the State Post Bureau in October 2021, with a copy sent to 12 other departments including the ministries of transport and commerce.

Procuratorates have strengthened coordination and worked with postal administration departments to implement the suggestion, creating a synergy that has improved management, winning widespread social recognition, said Yuan.

Prosecutors combined case handling with long-term governance and continually strengthened communication with the postal and transportation administrations, market supervision and public security to improve supervision, Yuan said.

According to SPP statistics, from 2017 to 2020, procuratorial organs nationwide filed lawsuits against 11,235 people for mailing drugs, 8,782 people for mailing firearms, ammunition and explosives, and 1,153 people for mailing wild animals and their products.

In one case recently released by the SPP and dating to October 2021, an employee at a courier station in Nanxun district in Huzhou in Zhejiang province discovered that a recipient surnamed Zhang was frequently late in picking up his packages and often appeared haggard. Most of his packages came from a particular area, which made the courier suspicious.

He reported his suspicions to station management and the local police. The preliminary police verification showed that Zhang had a criminal record for drug abuse and drug trafficking and was still on probation.

On Nov 17, 2021, police detained the man when he arrived to pick up a package and found it contained about 70 grams of methamphetamine.

In December, the district's procuratorate filed a lawsuit against Zhang and a month later, taking into account his previous charges, the district court sentenced him to 20 years in prison and confiscated 80,000 yuan ($11,150) in property as a fine for drug trafficking.

Through extensive publicity and implementation of the procuratorial suggestion, procuratorial organs across the country have improved the awareness and ability of express delivery workers to detect the sending of contraband, preventing its delivery, the SPP said.

"We carry out a simultaneous investigation to find out whether there are suspicions of money laundering or other crimes, to ensure all crimes are punished," Yuan said.

Procuratorial organs generally pass down heavy punishments for the use of express delivery channels to traffic drugs, guns, ammunition, explosives, wild animals and their products, as well as fake or shoddy products, he said.

From October 2021 to May this year, procuratorial organs prosecuted over 2,000 cases involving the delivery of drug-related items, 900 cases involving firearms, ammunition and explosives and 300 cases involving wild animals and their products.