SHANGHAI - More than 30 percent of the 158 cases of drug smuggling handled by Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court since 2009 involved foreign defendants, according to the court.

Many of the defendants involved in smuggling drugs were from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Eastern Europe and were impoverished, the court added.

A large number of defendants had been paid to bring drugs into China by air, so-called mules, and were intercepted by customs officers as they arrived at Shanghai's airports.

Among them, a Vietnamese woman named Lam Thi Kim Dong was found carrying 204 bags of white powder hidden in the buttons of four dresses in her luggage when she arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in May 2009. She had flown in from Ho Chi Minh City.

The 582.9 grams of powder was later identified as containing 48.63 percent heroin by Shanghai Drug Test Center.

The woman defended herself in court, saying she did not know that the powder was heroin. She said people paid her $250 and covered other expenses and asked her to bring the dresses into the country. She said she tried to smuggle in the items because she needed the money.

The court sentenced her to 15 years in prison, confiscated 30,000 yuan ($4,630) and ordered her to be deported.

The majority of the drugs seized were brought into the country on flights from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh, Istanbul and Dubai. The court said most of the drugs were destined for countries other than China.

However, a new trend is seeing some foreign drug smugglers starting to trade drugs inside China, according to Zhang Zhijie, chief judge of the No 1 criminal division of Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/21/2011 page5)