Sanlitun, a bustling area in Beijing's Chaoyang district, has become the main area where foreign drug addicts and traffickers are arrested, according to the capital's No 2 People's Procuratorate.

From 2011 to March 2012, the prosecuting authority dealt with seven cases involving seven foreigners suspected of drug addiction or trafficking in the area, making up about 23 percent of all such cases, said a statement from the procuratorate.

Around 86 percent of the suspects were from North and East African countries, five had no jobs and the other two were exchange students in the city, the statement said.

"The bar street in Sanlitun is always where many foreigners in the capital gather, so drug cases involving foreign suspects there are not rare," said Wei Lugang, a prosecutor with the authority.

Areas around the Workers' Stadium in the district have also been the site of frequent drug arrests in the past two years, he said.

Most drug purchases by the foreign suspects were smokable methamphetamine and marijuana, he added.

-Cao Yin

(China Daily USA 06/26/2013 page5)