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Man gets life in jail for smuggling meth

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-26 08:22

A 41-year-old man was jailed yesterday for life for smuggling methamphetamine, popularly known as "ice", into Beijing from a prefecture in northeastern China bordering the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Gao Yuxi showed little emotion as the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court sentenced him for trafficking 197.5 g of the drug from the border city of Yanji into the capital.

The sentencing came just a day after police in the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture publicly burned 256 kg of drugs, most of which were seized from "neighboring countries".

"The burnt drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, opium and marijuana, have been seized in and around the region by police of the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture since 2004," said a vice-captain of the anti-drug squad of Yanji city, under the prefecture in Jilin province, who would only give his surname as Jin.

"More than 160 kg of the drugs were methamphetamine, most of which were sourced from neighboring countries," Jin said.

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"The ice we seized is of different quality compared to that sold in south China's Guangdong province."

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court is also hearing a trial of two Korean minorities accused of transporting 201 g of methamphetamine from the same border city to the capital.

Jilin province-based media, Yanbian Information Port, reported yesterday that 3,006 suspects and offenders were either detained or arrested in 2,556 drug cases in the prefecture since 2005.