Thirteen members of a well-organized drug gang in Baise, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, were sentenced to death, death with reprieves, and life imprisonment for trafficking altogether 36 kilograms of heroin this week.

According to the Baise Intermediate People's Court, from May 2003 to June 2004, the drug traffickers, all peasants, traveled to Jinghong and Ruilin, two cities in neighboring Yunnan Province that borders Myanmar, the Laos and Vietnam, and even illegally sneaked into Myanmar to make deals with foreign drug traffickers.

They smuggled, transported and distributed 36 kilograms of heroine in 14 months, according to the court verdict.

Ten of them are from Pingguo County in Baise, one from Kaijiang County in Sichuan Province and the other two from Liangping Countyin Chongqing Municipality.

Two of them were sentenced to death, seven were sentenced to death with reprieves, and four life imprisonment.

In Guangxi last year, law enforcement forces seized nearly 200 kilograms of drugs, including 179 kilograms of heroin, prosecuted 5,737 drug-related cases and arrested nearly 2,400 suspects in their anti-drug campaign.

Source: Xinhua