CHINA: 7 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

China's top court announced that it had approved the death penalty for seven people for drug trafficking. Three principal figures in a cross-border drug network, Yan Hanlong, Li Zibin and Xiong Shiwei, were sentenced to death for the "extremely huge amount" (42 kg) of heroin they smuggled from Myanmar. Wang Guangyou was convicted of organising villagers in Guizhou Province to transport 806 grams of heroin from Kunming, Yunnan Province. Guo Shichen was convicted of trading 1,275 grams of the drug "magu", well above the threshold for a death sentence.
Also sentenced to death was Zhang Hong'an, who had long been engaged in cross-border drug crimes as the leader of a trafficking gang, and Long Congbin, who had previous drug trafficking convictions.