China courts sentence drug suspects

China destroyed tonnes of drugs and sentenced hundreds of people in its crackdown on narcotics ahead of International Day Against Drug Abuse which falls on June 26.

Twenty-six people were sentenced for drug-related crimes on Thursday in east China's costal city Qingdao. Among them, a woman called Cui was given life in prison for drug dealing, and another defendant Ji received 15 years for transporting drugs and accommodating drug abuse.

In the eastern province of Fujian, courts issued verdicts in the trials of 135 drug criminals in 94 cases, according to the provincial higher people's court on Wednesday. Four people were executed upon approval by the Supreme People's Court (SPP).

Courts in Jiangsu Province sentenced 290 people on Wednesday. Forty-eight were sentenced to death or prison terms of ten years or more, said Li Yusheng, deputy head of the Jiangsu Higher People's Court.

A court in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, sentenced three men to death for drug trafficking on Thursday. A 25-year-old drug addict was given a suspended death for murdering his girlfriend in November.

In the southern province of Hainan, the Haikou Intermediate People's Court executed two criminals following SPP approval. The two were convicted of trading and transporting drugs.

Border police in Guangdong destroyed 3.2 tonnes of drugs, such as heroin and crystal methamphetamine on Wednesday.

In the first five months of 2015, Guangdong police arrested more than 10,000 drug crime suspects and seized 9.2 tonnes of narcotics.

From January 2014 to the end of May this year, the province apprehended 255 foreign drug suspects and 464 from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

China had 2.95 million registered drug addicts at the end of 2014, but the real number is thought to exceed 14 million, the Ministry of Public Security said on Wednesday.