CHINA: 10 EXECUTED FOR SERIES OF DRUG CRIMES

June 23, 2018:

Ten drug traffickers were executed in Guangdong province after an appeals court upheld their earlier conviction and pronounced sentence. The executions were approved by the Supreme People's Court.
Fan Shuixian and nine others were put to death shortly after the Shanwei Intermediate People's Court in Lufeng delivered its decision. The court had already affirmed their convictions in a lower court for producing, owning, trafficking and selling large amounts of illicit drugs.
The sentencing hearing was public. Lufeng is a city under the administration of Shanwei in eastern Guangdong.
Fan was also found guilty of illegally possessing weapons and of illegally extracting about 50 kilograms of drug components from 75 metric tons of ephedrine from September to October 2012.
"Fan earned 1.1 million yuan ($172,000) from selling the ephedrine he extracted, and later mixed 16.4 kilograms of methamphetamine, commonly known as ice, with his ephedrine," the court said.
Police seized 16.4 kg of meth and 33.2 kg of semifinished meth, along with five guns and 126 rounds of ammunition when they raided Fan's drug den and detained him at the end of October 2012.
Others executed on June 23 were Cai Jinxiong, Chen Jinjun, Fan Zhongchao, Hong Liu, Huang Wenze, Cai Chugang, Wu Shenggeng, Li Zhenyu and Zhuang Chengfa. All were convicted of illegally producing, owning and trafficking large amounts of illicit drugs.