China's Supreme People Court on Thursday announced the executions of six criminals in four separate drug cases prior to Saturday's International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
In one case that occurred in southwestern Sichuan Province, Xia Zhijun and He Pingquan, in cooperation with others, manufactured more than 320 kilograms of Ketamine in 2007. Officials confiscated more than 280 kilograms, along with a gun and 14 bullets.
According to a statement released by the court, Xia and He were given the death penalty as they committed severe crimes by making "a huge amount" of Ketamine, some of which already had been distributed to the public, and illegally carried guns, thus causing extremely great harm to society.
In another case in southern Yunnan Province, Zhu Yufeng and Wang Zhengyuan were executed for organizing the cross-border smuggling of 35 kilograms of methamphetamine and 38.161 kilograms from Myanmar in 2008.
In the third case, Liu Wei was convicted of manufacturing and selling some 160 kilograms of liquid heroine, it being enough for about 50,000 injections in 2006 and 2007 in northeastern Liaoning Province.
In addition, Li Dezhong was found to have sold 32.1 kilograms of Ketamine along with 197.3 grams of methamphetamine and 450 grams of marijuana.