Death sentence upheld for former Party chief of Chinese drug-production village

GUANGZHOU -- Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court on Tuesday upheld a death sentence for the former Communist Party chief of Boshe village, convicted of drug production and trafficking.

Boshe, under the jurisdiction of Lufeng, used to be called the country's "top drug-production village" as it supplied over one-third of the nation's crystal meth.

After a trial in 2016, Cai Dongjia, former Party secretary of Boshe, was sentenced to death for smuggling and manufacturing drugs and covering for criminals. The Higher People's Court in Guangdong rejected Cai's appeal against the verdict.

Meanwhile, the court upheld the verdicts against the other two involved in the case who were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for smuggling and producing drugs.

More than 3,000 police officers raided the village in the early morning of Dec 29, 2013, seizing three tonnes of crystal meth and capturing more than 180 suspects, including Cai.

The court found that the three, who started producing drugs in 2011, had manufactured a total of 330 kg of crystal meth and sold it for profit.

The court also found that twice in late 2013 Cai offered bribes in an attempt to help free his accomplices who had been detained by police in Huizhou.