CHINA: JAPANESE, KOREAN DRUG DEALERS SENTENCED

Six people nabbed in a cross-border drug trafficking case in China, including one Japanese and two Koreans, have been given punishments ranging from life imprisonment to the death sentence.
Three of the six, including one from the Chinese mainland, one from Hong Kong and one from Japan, were sentenced to death on Dec. 16 for trafficking up to 120 kg of crystal methamphetamine, the intermediate people's court of Nantong City in the eastern province of Jiangsu said on December 26.
The court found that the Hong Kong man escorted the Japanese buyer and three others -- two from the Republic of Korea and one from Taiwan, who are still on the run -- to buy crystal methamphetamine from two sellers in south China's Guangdong Province between February 2012 and March 2013.
Some of the drugs were transported to Nantong and also Rizhao in Shandong Province, and another two Koreans were responsible for smuggling the drugs to Japan by cargo ship, it said.
The other drug seller in Guangdong was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. The two Koreans were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and life in prison, respectively.
The court also ordered the confiscation of the personal property of all six drug dealers.
Three of the six have appealed their verdicts.