Chinese police stepped up their crackdown on drug trafficking syndicates last year, busting more than 5,900 drug pushing gangs - this represents an 18.1 percent increase compared to the figure recorded in the same period in 2014.

The National Narcotics Commission said on Thursday that of those arrested for drug trafficking, 1,500 were foreigners from 39 countries including Myanmar, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Pakistan.

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The commission noted that rampant drug trafficking is also taking place online with 15,000 drug sales cases aborted by the police last year.

                                                           Drug-related crimes

The Commission expressed concern over the high incidence of drug-related crimes in the mainland, prompting the authorities to intensify their crackdown.

According to the gathered data, the number of drug-related crimes rose to 174,000 last year, accounting for 14 percent of all criminal cases which include murder, kidnappings, robberies, and rape.

The commission said the number of drug users in the country has also risen significantly.

                                                            2.3M drug users

There were more than 2.3 million drug users recorded in China last year. Of this number, more than a million were arrested, the report said.

The recorded number of arrests represents a 20 percent increase compared to the arrests made in 2014.

Almost half of the 1,062,000 people arrested last year were reportedly new offenders, a 14.6 percent increase compared to the number of first time offenders recorded in 2014.

                                                            Amphetamine

The report said more than half of those arrested last year (72.6 percent) abused amphetamine (known by its street name 'ice') as the drug of their choice and 80.5 percent used assorted drugs. Opioids and heroin were also highly abused by the offenders.

Of the 2.3 million drug users, more than half or 60.6 percent were between the ages of 18-35, while 1.8 percent were below 18. About 37.6 percent were aged 36 and above, the commission said.

Young students were the lowest number of drug users arrested at 0.5 percent ,while the number of  farmers was pegged at 18 percent. Around 70 percent were unemployed.                                                                       

Records shows that the farmers and laborers were the most involved in drug trafficking at 80 percent, while the rest of the drug pushers were the youth.

Other offenders who were caught pushing drugs include civil servants, laborers and students.

TagsNational Narcotics Commission, Chinese police, foreigners, drug menace