Five members of a heroin trafficking gang have been sentenced to death by a court in southwestern China's Sichuan province, state press said Tuesday.
One of those condemned to death by a court in city of Nanchong on Monday had his sentence suspended for two years, while five other members of the gang were jailed for terms ranging up to life imprisonment, the Tianfu Morning Post said in an Internet report.
The court found Xiao Jianbo guilty of trafficking 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of heroin, while Luo Qingpu was convicted of buying 11 kilos from Xiao for 1.06 million yuan (127,710 dollars), the report said. Both men were sentenced to death.
Others were convicted for buying and trying to sell between 1.3 kilograms and 15 grams of the drug.
Also Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported that border guards in the southwestern province of Yunnan confiscated eight kilograms of heroin from an unnamed Laotian trafficker last week.
Yunnan borders the "golden triangle" region grouping Laos, Myanmar and northern Thailand, a poppy-growing region which has become one of the world's largest producers of heroin.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28,2001)
