Chinese police escort a group of 30 prisoners for a public sentencing rally in Hangzhou, Jan. 27, 2005

CHINA. 13 PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CROSS COUNTRY BORDER DRUGS CASE

June 30, 2005: a court in southeastern China sentenced to death 13 convicted drug traffickers in what was being called the country's biggest case of cross-border drug trade involving "ice," state press said. Wang Qinghuang and Cai Huaipin were singled out as leaders of a gang that manufactured millions of dollars of methamphetamine hydrochloride, an illegal stimulant also known as "ice," and distributed it widely in China and Southeast Asia, the Southeast Morning Post reported. Two others were sentenced to life in prison by the intermediate court of Quanzhou city for money-laundering in the case that was jointly handled by police in China, the Philippines and Malaysia.  The case first came to light in December 2002, when Philippines police uncovered 690 kilograms (1,518 pounds) of ice in a burning warehouse. Following extensive investigations, police busted key members of the gang in China in April 2004, confiscating 22.8 kilograms of ice and 1,975 kilograms of chemical precursors for making ice. Court papers also cited the drug syndicate's participation in the production of 1,900 kilograms of ice in Malaysia that was confiscated in April 2004 in explaining the stiff sentences. Earlier reports out of Kuala Lumpur said some 30 people were arrested, among them a number of Chinese, in April 2004 in a Malaysian drug bust involving up to two tons of ice with a street value of up to 42 million dollars. Scores of others involved in the case have been tried and convicted in the Philippines and Malaysia. Ten of those convicted hailed from Fujian's Shishi city. Three of the 13 death sentences were meted out with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to a life sentence.
The case also marked the first time in China that a defendant had been sentenced to life imprisonment for money laundering, the report said. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 30/06/2005)