China sentenced 10 people to death in two separate...

China sentenced 10 people to death in two separate cases in central and eastern China involving drug trafficking and armed robberies along highways, state media said. Five were convicted drug traffickers sentenced to death in what is considered the most serious drug smuggling case to be tried in the coastal province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news agency said. A court in Jinhua city, which convicted and sentenced the five, found they had formed a drug trafficking ring which between July 2001 and March 2002 purchased 76.35 kilograms of heroin from Yunnan province in southwest China and smuggled most of it into Shanghai, Xinhua said. Police in Jinhua seized 20 kilograms of heroin while busting the ring, Xinhua quoted court sources saying. The China News Service also reported that five people were sentenced to death in the city of Zhengzhou in central Henan province recently for 21 highway robberies and five robberies at gas stations and major streets. The defendants were part of a 22-member armed gang responsible for crimes in Henan since 1996. Armed with guns and knives, they would rob truck drivers and other people travelling on the highway. Most of the gang members were Henan farmers aged 21 to 36. They stole money, mobile phones and jewellery worth a total 250,000 yuan (30,000 USD). One of their victims suffered serious injuries and five others suffered minor injuries. It took police two years to crack the case. Another five people ruled to have been accomplices were given suspended death sentences or life imprisonment, the report said.