China sentences 38 drug dealers at public rally

China on Friday held a giant public event to sentence 38 drug dealers and distributors in Lufeng, a city in the southern Guangdong Province known as a major drug workshop.

About 10,000 people attended the rally jointly held by the Shanwei Intermediate People's Court and Lufeng Municipal People's Court, seeing 13 of the defendants receive death sentences, eight death sentences with a two-year reprieve and the others long prison terms on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Local authorities hope the public sentencing will showcase the government's hard line on drugs.

Guangdong is China's largest producer of methamphetamine. More than a third of the methamphetamine consumed in China was made in villages administered by Lufeng.

A campaign in the city over the past two years has seen 3,329 kg of methamphetamine seized and 668 suspects arrested, said Zheng Jia, secretary of Lufeng's municipal committee of the Communist Party of China.

Chen Wei, deputy chief judge of Lufeng People's Court, said the rally was held to raise awareness of drug laws and act as a deterrent against drug crime.

Cai Kun, a high-school student who attended the rally, said drug production and trading in his hometown of Jiazi used to be rampant, but the campaign has effectively curbed it.

"We have seen many wanted posters for drug suspects on local TV. We have also learned that drugs have destroyed a lot of families," he said. Endi