ladyarkles
03-25-2005, 07:28 PM
CHINA:
China charges gang with trafficking $5.5 bln of "ice"
A Chinese gang has gone on trial accused of trafficking more than $5.5 billion worth of methamphetamine, or "ice", in one of the world's biggest narcotics cases, the China Daily said on Thursday.
The eight suspects appeared in court in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou charged with manufacturing and trafficking 12 tons of the drug between 1999 and 2002, "almost equal to the amount of ice drug seized globally in 1999", the newspaper said.
The defendants, including suspected gang leader Chen Bingxi, 49, face the death penalty if found guilty in keeping with China's hard line on drugs, including forced rehabilitation of addicts.
Chen initially escaped to Thailand, but was tracked down in 2003 and returned to Guangdong, one of three far southern provinces that are the main front of China's battled against drugs, much of which is heroin flowing across the border from Southeast Asia.
Last December, Chinese media reported the biggest ecstasy bust in the country's history, also in Guangdong.
(source: Reuters)
China charges gang with trafficking $5.5 bln of "ice"
A Chinese gang has gone on trial accused of trafficking more than $5.5 billion worth of methamphetamine, or "ice", in one of the world's biggest narcotics cases, the China Daily said on Thursday.
The eight suspects appeared in court in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou charged with manufacturing and trafficking 12 tons of the drug between 1999 and 2002, "almost equal to the amount of ice drug seized globally in 1999", the newspaper said.
The defendants, including suspected gang leader Chen Bingxi, 49, face the death penalty if found guilty in keeping with China's hard line on drugs, including forced rehabilitation of addicts.
Chen initially escaped to Thailand, but was tracked down in 2003 and returned to Guangdong, one of three far southern provinces that are the main front of China's battled against drugs, much of which is heroin flowing across the border from Southeast Asia.
Last December, Chinese media reported the biggest ecstasy bust in the country's history, also in Guangdong.
(source: Reuters)