DEATH SENTENCE IN HUGE HEROIN HAUL

A woman had been sentenced to death and her accomplice thrown in jail
for life after police made the single largest haul of heroin in
Beijing for more than 50 years, state media said.

The ruling was handed down on Ma Xiuqin, a 31-year-old woman from
north-west Gansu province, and her accomplice Zhang Ganiang, 32, on
Sunday by the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court, the China
Daily reported.

Their arrests came after police in Beijing received a tip-off last
June from their Gansu colleagues about a drug ring operating between
the two areas and subsequently arrested the women, seizing 13.2kg of
heroin.

State media said it was the largest amount taken in a single case in
Beijing since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

The court heard that Ma arrived in the Chinese capital in late 2002
with a drug boss to set up business, with Ma promised 100 yuan
($15.95) for each 10,000 yuan she made, the paper said.

According to the court, she sold 20kg narcotics in June last year
alone, earning her boss three million yuan.

Whenever she had customers she would call Zhang, who had previously
served five years in jail for drug offences, to make the deliveries.

Chinese law dictates that anyone producing or selling more than 50
grams of heroin may be sentenced to 15 years, life in prison or the
death penalty.

In another case, police in south-western Chongqing municipality said
they had cracked a drug-trafficking channel bringing heroin into the
country from neighbouring Burma.

Two people were arrested and 370 grams of the drug were confiscated.