CHINA. SEVEN PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH IN JIANGSU FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

seven people were sentenced to death and another to death with reprieve by the Wuxi Municipal Intermediate People's Court in east China's Jiangsu Province following what police described as the largest drug trafficking case cracked in the province. The eight-member ring reportedly trafficked about 20 kilograms of drugs in three cities, Chongqing, Shanghai and Wuxi, and controlled about 60 percent of the drugs circulating in Wuxi.  Forty-year-old Lian Yongming, head of the ring, started trafficking drugs in 1995, and had previously been imprisoned for about two years. Most of the ring members had prior criminal records. The other traffikers were Liu Hongwei, Su Chuwen, Yang Zongming, Lian Yongwei, Wu Bing, Xian Bao and Tu Qiang.