W. CHINA EXECUTES 16 FOR DRUG CRIMES

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Sixteen drug traffickers have been executed in
western China, where drug-smuggling arrests are up 30 percent this year, a
state news agency reported Thursday.

Courts in Sichuan also sentenced 129 people to life in prison as part of the
province-wide anti-drug crackdown, the China News Service said.

It said the executions and other sentencings took place recently, but did
not say when or give details of the cases. It said 662 people had been
arrested for drug smuggling in the first five months, a 30 percent rise over
the previous year.

Thirteen convicts were executed in Chengdu, the provincial capital, and
three in Mianyang, the report said, citing Wang Xingtu, president of the
provincial No. 2 Higher Level People's Court.

Sichuan borders the southwestern province of Yunnan, the entry point for
tons of heroin smuggled out of southeast Asia.