Four drug traffickers have been executed Tuesday in Nanchang, capital city of east China's Jiangxi province, for trafficking and selling 27.32 kilograms of heroin.

The executed were Wang Xingjun 37, a jobless man from Beipiao city of northeast China's Liaoning province, Du Xiaoping, 42, a former worker of Jiangxi Printery, Zhou Jianbang, 44, a former employee of Zhaoqing-based Zhongyu Electronics Sciences and Technology Co., Ltd., in south China's Guangdong province, and Cai Xianhua, 39, a former worker with the passenger transportation company of the Nanchang Railway Administration. They were also deprived of their political rights for life, with all their personal properties confiscated by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanchang City.

Two of their complices were given death penalty each with a two-year reprieve and four others were given jail terms of three to 15years for their involvement in the case.

The court verdicts noted that Wang Xingjun and Zhou Jianbang sold 18.2 kg of heroin to Du Xiaoping and his complices in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, from late October 2001 to Jan. 10, 2002. Cai Xianhua, who served as a waiter at the dining car on the train from Guangzhou to Nanchang, helped transport the drug to Nanchang for selling.

On Jan. 25, 2002, Du Xiaoping went to Guangzhou again and gave Wang Xingjun 390,000 yuan (US$47,160) to buy drugs. Wang Xingjun, Zhou Jianbang and Du Xiaoping were captured by police the following day when trading 3,542 grams of heroin in a local hotel. Later, police spotted and seized 5,578 grams of heroin and 390,000 yuan used to buy drugs at an apartment rented by Wang and Zhou.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2004)