Most heroin smuggled out of Burma – the world’s second largest producer – is now trafficked through China. The opium poppies are grown in lawless hill country near the porous Chinese border, and pass easily across. The city of Kunming is a major trafficking centre, and China’s southern ports have become important staging posts, as law enforcement in Hong Kong has become more efficient. About 90% of seizures of South-east Asian heroin occur in China. Triad criminal networks are among the traffickers, who ship the drugs to the Americas, Asia and Oceania.
