Chinese Drug Cop Implicated In Massive Meth Raid

REUTERS/Stringer Police check seized crystal meth at Boshe village, Lufeng, Guangdong province, December 29, 2013. According to Xinhua News Agency, Lufeng provided one-third of the crystal meth nationwide over the past three years. Police seized three tonnes of crystal meth and arrested 182 suspects for producing and trafficking drug during the action. Picture taken December 29, 2013.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese drug enforcement officer has been linked to government officials arrested after the seizure of nearly three tons of the drug crystal methamphetamine in the southern province of Guangdong last month, local media reported.

Thousands of armed police arrested at least 182 people in a dramatic raid on Boshe, a seaside village which has supplied over a third of China's meth nationwide in the past three years, according to the government.

Investigators found that a captain of the drug enforcement squad in surrounding Lufeng city, surnamed Guo, was linked to the former Boshe Communist Party secretary Cai Dongjia, who was arrested in the December 29 raid, the influential Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Sunday.

Guo has been subjected to "shuanggui", a form of detention imposed on party officials suspected of corruption, the paper said without giving further details.

The report said Cai had used his position to obtain information about the police investigation prior to the raid and notified suspects.

More than 20 percent of households in Boshe were involved in drug production and trafficking rings, the Guangdong public security department has said.

In China, methamphetamine is the second most popular drug after heroin.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Sally Huang; Editing by Michael Perry)