Beijing police thwart telephone scams, illegal drug use

Beijing police thwarted 4,900 cases of telephone fraud involving 620 million yuan ($95 million) last year, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau reported on Tuesday.

The bureau also announced it had handled 116,000 criminal cases last year, seized 285 kilograms of drugs and identified about 12,000 people involved in illicit drug use. It said 261,000 people were punished for violations of public security rules.

Traffic accidents reported to police dropped by 19.4 percent last year from 2014, while phone calls to police dropped by 4.1 percent from the previous year, the bureau said.