French citizen gets death for drug trade in China

BEIJING - A French citizen and one of his accomplices were sentenced to death for manufacturing large quantities of crystal methamphetamine also known as “ice” in southern China, a media report said Monday.

Chinese-born French citizen Chan Thao Phoumy, 47, and Xie Weiming, were sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court in Guangzhou Saturday, China Daily reported.

Two other associates of their eight-member gang, Li Yunfeng and Xian Jinbai, were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, while three others were sentenced to life in jail. Another member was sentenced to 20-year imprisonment.

The court found that they began manufacturing the drug in Boluo county in 1999, before starting its production at other sites.

Police busted the gang in 2005. About 89 suspects were arrested and 16 factories that manufactured the drug were seized.

Chan was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007, but the harsher punishment was passed after additional crimes were uncovered while he was behind bars.

He is not the first foreigner to receive the death sentence for drug trafficking in China. On April 6, a Japanese national was executed after being convicted of attempting to smuggle drugs from China to Japan.

In December 2009, a British national was executed by lethal injection after being convicted of smuggling more than four kg of heroin into China.