The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the largest Kachin ceasefire group in Burma's northern Kachin State has launched an operation to flush out drug sellers, distributors and users in Maijayang (Mai Ja Yang), the second biggest border business centre with China's southwest Yunnan Province, said local sources.

An officer of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed wing of the KIO told KNG today, that the operation was launched in Mai Ja Yang early this week. It will continue in the controlled centre until drug smuggling and users are checked significantly.

The operation became necessary because the drug business is on the rise by civilians in the controlled centre, the KIA officer explained.

In the past, before the Chinese businessmen-owned casinos in the controlled centres were forcibly closed by the Chinese government in early February, they could not launch operations against drug smugglers and users because thousands of Chinese gamblers and sellers had settled in the controlled centre, added the KIA officer.

Drug sellers and distributors are now being detained in KIO prison cells. They are punished with two types of fines--- the stated amount of money or stick depending on the amount of drugs seized after the KIO court sentences them, said KIO sources.

Action is also being taken against young drug users and men and women in KIO/A services. However they are sent to the KIO's drug treatment centre till they recover, according to KIO sources.

Mai Ja Yang is home to around 1,000 families comprising over 5,000 people, mainly Kachins. Drug users are found in almost every family, said a resident of Mai Ja Yang.

Before the closure of the casinos, Chinese gamblers mainly used Amphetamine tablets also called Yama in Burmese in the casino precincts whereas the poorer drug users used heroin, said residents of Ma Ja Yang.

A resident of Lweje also called Loije in Kachin, a small town situated near Maijayang told KNG that the number of drug users in the town has declined significantly after China closed Chinese owned casinos in the KIO controlled area in Mai Ja Yang.