BEIJING: Customs officers in south and northeast China have reported seizures of narcotic plants in mail from Ethiopia and the United States.
On March 4, Dalian customs found seven mail boxes containing more than 60 kg of khat leaves, which contain amphetamine-like stimulant.
It is illegal to plant, possess, sell or consume khat in China.
Addresses on the mail boxes showed the leaves were sent from Ethiopia to a university dorm in Dalian, but they provided no details about the sender or receiver, the Dalian customs office said in a statement.
Local authorities have detained two foreign suspects, it added without giving details.
In a separate case, south China’s Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau found 400 grams of dried cannabis in an e-commerce package from the United States on Feb. 25.
An inspector using an X-ray machine noticed it under a layer of black tea in the package, according to a statement from the bureau.
It was the first time the cannabis strain indica had been found in a foreign e-commerce package.
Local authorities detained a suspect in early March and closed the e-commerce account used to import the cannabis, the bureau said.
