BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police solved 70,000 cases related to drug smuggling, trade and trafficking last year, a 31 percent decline from 2017, according to the China National Narcotics Control Commission Monday.

Around 98,000 suspects involved in these cases were arrested in 2018, fell 14.8 percent from the previous year, says a report on China's drug control situation issued by the commission Monday.

A total of 41.8 tonnes of drugs were confiscated, 36.6 percent less than that of 2017, it said, noting that more than 60 percent of the seized drugs were transported via land routes.

Maritime routes were increasingly used in large-scale drug trafficking cases, the report says, adding that the police solved five large-scale sea trafficking cases last year, each involving over 1 tonne of drugs.

There were also more foreigners entering the country with illicit drugs, with 1,268 foreign drug traffickers arrested in 2018, the report says.