A gang of seven people were given jail terms ranging from life imprisonment to four years for making and selling a drug known as Yaba, according to a ruling handed down by a court in south China's Guangdong Province.
The court said Yu Xuanhua, along with six accomplices, made 6,000 Yaba tablets - a combination of met amphetamine and caffeine which means crazy medicine in Thai - in October last year and another 11,000 tablets the following month.
They were caught on November 6 last year selling the drug in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong.
Ringleader Yu Xuanhua was sentenced to life imprisonment; Xian Zhenfu, Xian Zhenwen, Qiu Caizhen and Yang Wenjun were sentenced to 13 years, 12 years and 10 years respectively; Qu Demin and Yu Bing were sentenced to four years, said Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
Yu, Qiu and Yang have appealed their sentences.
The drug has become increasingly popular among young people in recent years.
In June, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) sentenced Chinese national Guo Shichen to death for trading 1.2 kilograms of Yaba and other drugs.
At the time, the SPC said it was mulling a judicial interpretation to the criminal law to cope with the increasing number of cases involving new drugs, without setting out a timetable.
Statistics from the SPC show that from January 2006 to May 2007,China's courts sentenced 55,671 criminals in 49,270 drugs-related cases across the country and nearly two in five were given "heavy punishments", ranging from more than five years in jail to the death penalty.
Source: Xinhua
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