Chopper searches for poppy plantations
- Source: Global Times
- [08:00 June 15 2009]
- Comments
Police officers get ready to fly a helicopter to check for poppy plantations in Yanqing county, northwest of Beijing. Photo: Zhou Min
By Ji Beibei
Police have begun using a helicopter to search for opium poppy plantations in the suburbs of Beijing.
The anti-drug operation, dubbed “Eagle-eye 09,” launched by Beijing police and drug administration, began Saturday and will run until June 26, International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The helicopter concentrates its search in the counties and districts of Miyun, Huairou, Yanqing, Fangshan, Pinggu, Changping and Mentougou. Once the officers on board identify suspicious areas, police and rangers cooperate on the ground and conduct a field search.
About 10,000 well-trained volunteers and 6,000 rangers are reportedly involved in the operation.
Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing and the deputy director of Beijing Narcotics Control Commission, was quoted by Beijing Times yesterday at the launching of the operation as saying Beijing’s suburban counties, especially those bordering Hebei Province, are the favored areas for the illicit plantation of poppies due to the mountainous terrain.
While some farmers grow poppies for their medicinal properties or for the flowers, the crackdown is to ensure that they are not used for the production of illegal drugs.
Beijing does not have a history of large-scale poppy farming, and growers source their seeds from outside of the city and have contact with drug traffickers, according to a Saturday report by Beijing Evening News.
Zhao Wenzhong, director of the Narcotics Control Division of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, explained that it is a criminal offence to grow more than 500 poppies.
Last year several cases of small-scale planting were found but no cases of illegal farming have been found this year, Zhao said.
The Global Times called Yanqing Public Security Management Team in Beijing yesterday and was only told there is no poppy farming in the county.
As Beijing strengthens its force to fight illegal poppy cultivation, several cases have recently been reported in other Chinese cities.
In early May, a farmer surnamed Li in Chun’an county, one of the largest silkworm-raising areas in Zhejiang Province, was found to have 2,800 opium poppy plants. Some villagers apparently feed opium poppies to their silk worms, believing it to be beneficial to their growth, according to a report on the website of China News Services on May 31.
Since early June, Weihai armed border police division of Shandong Province has destroyed 2,440 poppy plants. Five households were found to be planting them but four claimed to have done so as a cure for diarrhea and the other as a painkiller. The villagers claimed not to be aware that the poppy plant is illegal, the Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
On June 9, Zhifu branch of Yantai Public Security Bureau in Shandong Province discovered a plantation of 2,830 opium poppies, which were later destroyed.
The owner of the plants, surnamed Yu, reportedly planted the poppies in a cherry garden and is now on trial at a local court, according to Dzwww.com
Yang Fengrui, Executive Vice Secretary General of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, told Xinhua in 2008 that poppy planting and heroin processing are not a domestic issue and dangerous drugs are usually only brought into China from abroad.
