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Smuggler of anteater tablets gets life sentence
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-26 07:43

A gang leader who ran a smuggling ring was sentenced to life in prison while his underlings got lesser prison terms.

The Yunnan Provincial Higher People's Court last Wednesday sentenced Li Miwei, 40, the head of the criminal gang, for smuggling pangolin tablets, valued at more than 20 million yuan ($2.92 million), over a period of several years. In March 2007, police cracked open the smuggling ring and arrested eight members of the gang.

The provincial higher court upheld a lower court ruling and Li was also fined 300,000 yuan. Other suspects got three to five years in prison.

Pangolins are a type of anteaters that have large hard scales.

(Yunnan Information Daily)