Cai Xiaodong Photo: Sina Weibo

A close collaboration of the anti-drug departments of China and Laos has successfully solved a murder case of a Chinese anti-drug policeman from Xishuangbanna in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, another major achievement in anti-drug law enforcement cooperation between the two countries, China’s anti-drug authority announced on Sunday. 

Cai Xiaodong, the late 38-year-old anti-drug border officer, was shot dead during an arrest of drug traffickers on December 4, 2021. Before he was killed during the encounter with five drug traffickers, he was deputy head of the law enforcement investigation team at the Xishuangbanna border administration detachment under the Yunnan General Station of Exit-Entry Frontier Inspection, according to guancha.cn. 

During a law enforcement operation conducted on December 4, 2021 by the Chinese border police in Yunnan against five Laotian drug dealers who smuggled into China, one of the narcos resisted arrest and opened fire. Tragically, Cai sacrificed his life in the line of duty. All the five Laotian drug traffickers managed to escape back to Laos. 

The case became a serious transnational armed drug trafficking case with severe implications which China’s Ministry of Public Security attached great importance to. The Chinese ministry held a video conference with senior officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security in a timely manner to promote the arrest of the narcos.

The Chinese ministry cooperated with the law enforcement departments from Laos, Myanmar and other countries to carry out a joint pursuit of the cross-border fugitives. The Laotian police captured some of the suspects involved in the case in Laos in a timely manner. However, the main suspect who was also the shooter, Piaosha Laojiesha, remained at large. 

Through close collaboration and coordinated action by the Chinese and Laotian police, the investigators identified the whereabouts of the suspect, and further narrowed down the scope of their work to target the individual.

On the evening of December 11, 2022, the Lao authority discovered the suspect had secretly returned home. By noon of the following day, the suspect with an explosive device, kept resisting in a desperate and malicious manner despite being persuaded to surrender several times. The Lao authority took a decisive action and shot him. He was rushed to hospital for treatment where he eventually died, People’s Daily reported on Sunday. 

The case marks another successful example of the collaboration and coordination between the Chinese and Lao anti-drug departments which effectively deterred the transnational drug trafficking force and set a new example for regional law enforcement and security cooperation. 

Next step, the anti-drug departments of both countries will continue to improve their joint investigative capabilities in solving transnational smuggling and drug trafficking cases, making positive contributions to maintaining and further developing bilateral drug enforcement cooperation and effectively promoting regional drug control efforts. 

Born in May of 1983, Cai devoted himself to an anti-drug career for a long time and was awarded the First-Class Merit, Second-Class Merit, and Third-Class Merit due to his outstanding achievements in drug control. On January 18, 2022, the People's Government of Yunnan Province posthumously recognized Cai as a martyr. 

In May 2022, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Public Security decided to confer upon Cai the title of “National First-Class Hero Model” within the public security system. 

On June 9, 2022, Cai's police number 377083 was retained, the first case of its kind since the establishment of the National Immigration Administration. 

Global Times