A notorious drug kingpin in south China has been sentenced to death for producing, selling and transporting tons of illegal drugs, while four others received suspended death sentences or life imprisonment. The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province, passed the sentence on Chen Bingxi, 50, of trafficking and manufacturing 12.36 tons of methamphetamine, selling 108.85 kilograms of heroin and transporting over 100 kg of heroin.

Chen's wife, Chen Baoyu, was sentenced to one year in jail for producing drugs and illegally crossing a border, according to the court.

Two members of Chen's drug ring were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Two others were sentenced to life in prison.

Chen, a native of Chishui Village of Puning City in Guangdong, had been dealing drugs for many years and had close contact with several drug lords in the country, the court said.

In 1998, Chen set up a warehouse to store more than 100 kg of heroin that had been transported from the southwestern province of Yunnan by Zhang Qisheng, a convicted drug trafficker who had been previously sentenced to death.

In May and June 1998, Chen and Liu Zhaohua, another notorious drug lord, rented a factory in Chishui Village and produced 300 kg of methamphetamine, the court heard. Liu was tried separately by the court but has yet to be sentenced.

Chen and Liu moved the drugs to a pesticide factory in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, after the Chishui factory polluted local water, poisoning the fish of local villagers, which caught the attention of local police.

In November 1999, police seized 11.08 tons of methamphetamine Chen had hidden in a storehouse in Guangzhou and another 1.28 tons in Puning. All these drugs were jointly produced by Chen and Liu, the court heard.

Chen and his wife fled to Thailand in November 1999 but were arrested by police in 2003.

Both Chen and his wife said they would appeal.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)