A court in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, has sentenced four gang leaders to death, with a two-year grace, in a major drug-trafficking case involving 94 tons of caffeine.

The gang operated the illegal business for a decade up to 2002 in five provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Punishments for 30 other suspected members ranged from a few years in jail to life imprisonment, the People's Court Daily reported Monday.

Also, three drugmakers and a trading company were fined 2 million yuan (US$240,000) to 4 million yuan (US$480,000).

The scheme began in late 1992 when one of the two masterminds, Sun Weimin, from local Mudanjiang city, bought 300 kilograms of caffeine from a drugmaker in Jilin Province. Sun earned more than 3,000 yuan after selling it.

Sun afterward got to know Chen Bo, a sales official with the Qiqihar Pharmaceutical Factory in Qiqihar, from whom he bought 1.5 tons of caffeine.

When the factory went bankrupt, Du Jun, another sales official, introduced Sun to Shen Lijuan, manager of the Jiaxu trading firm in Qiqihar, who sold Sun a huge amount of caffeine.

Zhao Wenqian, then a worker with the Qiqihar railway station, helped Sun transport the drugs to Henan Province, where Fan Desheng forwarded them to northern Inner Mongolia.

The other mastermind was Li Luhe, former sales manager at the Tongji pharmaceutical company in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

He was found guilty of purchasing 40 tons of caffeine from a drugmaker in Leshan, southwestern Sichuan Province.

(eastday.com February 24, 2004)