A major shipment of heroin headed for Kunming was discovered in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Monday, leading the country's customs officials to seek Chinese help in finding the Kunming contact for the smuggling operation, according to Bangladeshi media reports.

Bangladeshi customs at Zia International Airport arrested two Bangladeshi nationals for drug trafficking after finding 23.5 kilograms (51.8 pounds) of heroin hidden in their luggage under lemons, tea and lentils. The bust is the biggest in Bangladesh since 1999, when three Pakistani nationals were arrested with 24 kilograms of heroin.

According to customs officials speaking at a press conference, Ariful Islam Bhuiyan and Mahmud Ali were attempting to smuggle the heroin from Dhaka to Kunming via Beijing. The officials said they suspect that the two men, traveling to China on business visas, are part of an international drug ring, adding that they seek China's help in finding the intended recipient of the shipment in Kunming. As of noon on Wednesday, Chinese news media has yet to cover the story.

Image: The Daily Star

The China Daily is reporting that a bull elephant from Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan has recovered from a serious heroin addiction it picked up as a victim of illegal elephant trading. The elephant, nicknamed "Big Brother", was fed heroin-laced bananas in order to make it easier to control him and his herd, which they led westward to Dehong, near China's border with Myanmar.

According to the article, Big Brother developed a strong need for heroin after a few weeks of being drugged and would drool and twitch if not given regular doses. When the elephant smugglers arrived in Dehong they were arrested by the Dehong Forest Police. The China Daily explains what happened when the police tried to get Big Brother home:

"While driving the herd back to Xishuangbanna, Big Brother started drooling and bellowing and even tried to run away. The police were surprised to learn from one of the traders that it was suffering from withdrawal symptoms and could pose a danger to people, if not fed drugs immediately…

"The park authorities had thought Big Brother would forget drugs if kept in isolation, but it had been fed drugs for so long that it began to suffer severe withdrawal symptoms and became so wild that even its iron chain could not contain it."

Big Brother was sent to rehab at the Tropical Wildlife Park at the end of 2005. The park combined 50 milligram doses of methodone with a diet of grass, sugarcane and fruit to treat Big Brother's addiction, which took more than a year to kick.

Now a fully recovered Big Brother is preparing to be transferred back to Xishuangbanna, where he'll be let loose in the region's Wild Elephant Valley.

Image: China.org.cn

Yunnan province seized a whopping 9.6 tons of illegal drugs in the first 11 months of 2006, accounting for 80 percent of the total drugs confiscated nationwide during the period, according to this report citing Sun Dahong, deputy director of Yunnan's provincial Public Security Bureau. The total is more than double the four tons of drugs seized in the province in 2005.

Of the 9.6 tons, police seized 3.87 tons of heroin, 3.71 tons of methamphetamine, 1.38 tons of opium and 0.64 tons of other drugs. Nearly 12,000 people were arrested during the 11-month period.

Yunnan is situated just north of the infamous opiate-producing area in the northern regions of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand known as the Golden Triangle. Its rugged and porous borders have made it a main point of entry for illegal drugs into China.

Heroin and methamphetamine seem to be the main targets of the 30,000+ anti-drug police in Yunnan. The majority of heroin coming into China from the Golden Triangle passes through Dali, where it is then distributed to the rest of China and even the United States via China's coastal cities.