Cases of drug running involving Mongolians are being reported with alarming frequency.  There are 15 people at present under investigation, while two Mongolians caught on the Chinese side of the border have been sentenced to death under Chinese law.

A nightclub in Chingeltei district is under the scanner but police are not yet certain if cigarettes offered there contained banned substances. A few cases of Mongolians connected with drug are given below.

L.Baigalmaa was caught in Beijing with 149 tablets on June 28. Laboratory tests revealed that the tablets contained heroin. L.Baigalmaa was given the death sentence after she made a full confession. She is currently awaiting execution.

China does not permit a condemned man to meet anyone, even an official from the country’s embassy. Recently, the Foreign Ministry succeeded in arranging a monthly meeting with her family. She was also given warm clothes for the New Year. Her husband has asserted her innocence, saying she had been an innocent dupe. He has written to the President urging him to order a police investigation into the women who had put the tablets in her bag.

Most of those caught carrying drugs are women from poor families. There is concern that they are being used by Chinese drug groups like Golden Crest Moon and Golden Triangle.

Another Mongolian in a Chinese prison, at Urumchi, is B.Damdin whose appeal against the death sentence is pending.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says three Mongolians each are in prison in Kazakhstan and Russia, and another in Hungary.

Not a month ago, B.Oigonbayar was caught in Zamiin-Uud with 1.7 kilograms of narcotics. He is still being interrogated by Mongolian police trying to find more about a possible ring. If he had succeeded in crossing the border and was caught in China, he would have been given the death sentence immediately.

Organizations to help addicts have treated more than 2,000 people so far. They are immune from prosecution as they claim they were unwilling users and showed a desire to kick the habit.