A drug smuggler in east China was given a death sentence with a two-year stay for smuggling 3.8 tonnes of methaqualone pills, a potentially habit-forming drug used as a sedative and hypnotic.

Wu Jiang was accused of hiding the pills by layering them among 203 wooden gates and transporting them to South Africa in March 2006, the Zhejiang Provincial Higher People's Court said in its final ruling handed down on Tuesday.

South African police seized the drugs on May 10, 2006. Wu was apprehended on Nov. 3 in Yiwu city.

His accomplice, Zeng Jianhua, was given a life sentence and had 20,000 yuan (2,857 U.S. dollars) of his assets confiscated. Two other accomplices, Pu Kui and Xu Zhikun, received 15-year jail terms.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2008)