The Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court on Wednesday made a final judgment to uphold the death penalty for a Taiwanese drug dealer named Chung Wan-yi, officials said on Friday.

Chung and his 11 counterparts were arrested in February 2007 in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, for operating a Kunming-based drug trafficking ring.

Chung monitored accomplices in Thailand to buy heroin from the opium-producing "Golden Triangle" area. The drugs were then shipped, disguised in furniture, to Taiwan, the court said.

The Intermediate People's Court in Kunming sentenced Chung to death on June 26, 2007. Chung and his accomplices appealed for a higher trial. The death sentence will now go to China's Supreme Court for final approval.

Yunnan, which borders the "Golden Triangle", has suffered from the drug trade for a long time, and has launched a series of crackdowns against drug trafficking.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2008)