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Dozens of drug dealers executed in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-25 20:44
Dozens of drug dealers were sentenced to death in a series of drug-related
criminal cases across China as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and
Illicit Trafficking draws near.
In southwestern Yunnan province, Tan Minglin and three other people convicted
of smuggling or selling five tons of drugs, including heroin and ephedrine, were
executed after having all their belongings confiscated on Friday.
Chinese drug trafficker Ji
Xinmi (C) listens to his verdict during public sentencing outside a
railway station in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, June 24, 2004. Ji was
sentenced to death for smuggling drugs on the railway in southern China.
[Reuters] |
South China's Guangdong province
cracked a series of such drug- related criminal cases. Li Qingyuan was sentenced
to death while his colleague Lu Guowu was sentenced a two-year stay of execution
with all his property confiscated. Tan Zhong'an, another accomplice, was given a
seven-year jail term and fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) by a local court in
Shenzhen city, which neighbors on Hong Kong.
Four more drug-related suspects, including Liu Shenming, Ma Guoli, Wang
Jianwei and Ye Yuezhen, were also executed respectively by courts in Fanyu,
Huadu, Conghua districts, as well as a development zone of Guangzhou, capital
city of Guangdong, on Friday.
Another Chen Xue'an and three other suspects accused of illegally purchasing
60 kg of drugs by raising over four million yuan (US$481,000) were sentenced to
death in Wenzhou city of east China's Zhejiang province on Thursday.
Cars, mobile phones and over five million yuan (US$602,000) of illicit money
involved in the case were also confiscated.
In Hangzhou, capital city of the province, a total of 17 suspects were
declared guilty of smuggling drugs, two of which were AIDS/HIV carriers
sentenced to death on the same day.
Shaanxi province, northwest China, totally cracked 4,200 such cases and
arrested 2,595 suspects while seizing 21 kg of heroin, said a high official with
the provincial public security bureau in a news conference held on Friday.
And the police in Urumqi, capital city of China's westernmost Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, burned approximately 40 kilograms of heroin on Thursday.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, China cracked a total of
546,900 drug-related criminal cases in the past five years from 1998 to 2003,
seizing a total of 51.03 tons of heroin and uprooting 427 hectares of opium
poppy.
Statistics show that 235,600 criminal suspects were arrested for producing,
trafficking and selling drugs over the past five year period, and 52.43 tons of
"ice", or methamphetamine hydrochloride, 14.73 tons of opium and 1,412.5 tons of
chemicals that could be used to make drugs were confiscated in the same period.
A source with the ministry acknowledged that strike-hard policies of China's
narcotics control units in combating drug- related crimes and highly-effective
measures and substantial efforts of the related units and localities across
China have paid off in the war on the drug-related criminal cases.
The building of drug-free villages and communities, as well as active
involvement in the international narcotics control efforts were all attributed
to the victory over drug-related crimes in the country.
However, efforts are urgently required to curb production and sales of drugs
and stem the increase in the number of drug addicts to reduce the harmful
effects of drugs.
China now boasts an anti-drug police force of about 17,000 members, and its
central government has input more than 600 million yuan (US$72.55 million) for
drug control efforts over the past five years.
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