Burmese drug runners to be executed in China

A COURT in China has sentenced a Burmese drug smuggler and three members of his gang to death for murdering 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River, in a case marking China’s growing law-enforcement role beyond its borders.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said chief suspect Naw Kham, who was extradited to China by Lao officials in May, was guilty of the killings of Chinese boat crews last year in the “Golden Triangle” region known for drug smuggling where the borders of Laos, Burma and Thailand meet.

It was one of the deadliest assaults on Chinese nationals overseas in modern times and prompted Beijing to send gunboat patrols to the region.

Naw Kham pleaded guilty at the Intermediate People’s Court of Kunming in September during a two-day trial in which he expressed penitence to the victims and their families, state media reported at the time.