The Chinese gangs tend to maintain only familial relations, with the exception of heroin traffickers, who have export networks back home.

Contorno became a cigarette smuggler and heroin trafficker.

At times, elements of the service have been accused of protecting heroin traffickers.

Meanwhile, Colombian heroin traffickers had undercut Asian suppliers with lower prices and purer grades.

"But in the end you realize that you have no recourse and that like heroin traffickers, they are ready to kill you at any moment."

It was investigated by a special drug agency unit called Group 41, which focuses exclusively on Asian heroin traffickers.

"They are some of the most experienced heroin traffickers in the world," he said.

Alleged heroin traffickers, as "corruptors of Basque youth" and police collaborators, a fix for a tip.

The company became a conduit for financial operations of heroin traffickers linked to the Mafia.

He had been framed by a small-time Malaysian heroin trafficker and spent more than four years in a Zurich prison.