The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court Sunday sentenced one woman to death and another to life in prison for drug trafficking.

Police also confiscated 13.2 kilograms of heroin from the two, the largest amount taken in a single case in Beijing history.

Last June, ironically on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Beijing police received a tip from their Gansu colleagues about a drug-trafficking channel between Beijing and the northwest province of Gansu.

After a week long investigation, police arrested the suspects Ma Xiuqin, 31, and Zhang Ganiang, 32.

Authorities said Ma arrived in Beijing in late 2002 with a drug boss, from Gansu. By January, the boss went home, leaving a drug business the two had set up to Ma.

Her boss promised Ma 100 yuan (US$12) out of each 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) she made.

Ma excelled, in a single month of last June, selling 20 kilograms of drugs while earning 3 million yuan (US$360,000) for the kingpin and 30,000 yuan (US$3,610) herself.

Zhang Ganiang, a former convict who served a 5-year jail term for drug-trafficking, followed Ma to Beijing last March.

Whenever Ma had customers, she would call Zhang to deliver the drugs after fetching them from a secret place.

Police found Ma had hidden a large cache of drugs at a rented house in Xuanwu District between April and June of last year.

When the two women were arrested, police discovered 13.2 kilograms of heroin and 120,000 yuan (US$14,500) in cash from their rental sites. The two were found guilty of trafficking in narcotics, the court ruled.

According to the Criminal Law, people who produce or sell more than 50 grams of heroin may be sentenced to 15 years, life in prison or can be given the death penalty.

The judge ruled that Ma will die. Zhang has received a life sentence.

In another narcotics case, Chongqing police said they have cracked an international drug-trafficking channel between the southwestern municipality and Myanmar, arresting two traffickers and confiscating 370 grams of heroin.

Last month, police got information from a mobile phone message on a detained drug-trafficking suspect that a dealer in Yunnan was hiring people to deliver drugs they bought from Myanmar to Chongqing Municipality.

The police contacted the dealer, Xie Zigui, and persuaded him to make a deal on January 6 in Chongqing.

When Xie showed up at the railway station there, police grabbed him and another man, Yu Zhonglong, who was carrying drugs in his body.

(China Daily January 19, 2004)