The court hearing for the largest-ever case of narcotics
production in Beijing opened yesterday.
Four men from Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, are charged with producing
about 166 kg of drugs in the nation's capital.
In addition, one member of the group, 41-year-old Liang Ruinan,
is accused of illegally possessing more than 50 g of
methamphetamine, otherwise known as "ice".
In 1983, Liang was sentenced to life imprisonment for stealing
guns, illegal border crossing and burglary, but was released on
parole in 1996.
In 2001, he was sentenced to 11 months for producing drugs on
behalf of Tan Zhirong, a drug trafficker also known as "Ah Rong",
but was released a month later.
Liang admitted he was again working for Tan, for a fee of
100,000 yuan, but denied being involved in the production of the
drugs. He said he knew nothing other than that they were to be
smuggled abroad.
The three other suspects also said they had "nothing to do" with
the seized narcotics.
Public procurators, however, said the act was well planned.
According to them, in March of last year, Liang and Chen Bing
drove from Guangzhou to Beijing, where they rented a room in the
Huateng Yuan neighborhood of Chaoyang district to use as a base for
their drug production.
After a week preparing the equipment needed for the production
of ice, the two men said they left their car with Cheng Zhongying,
a middleman who was paid 20,000 yuan by Liang Weiguang, another
drug dealer, to drive it to an unknown address, where it was loaded
with cases of ice in its solid form.
Procurators say these drugs were used by Li Huicheng and
Indonesian Chen Shunshi to produce the 166 kg of "liquid" ice
seized by drugs police. Li and Chen Shunshi had been picked up by
Liang Ruinan and Chen Bing from a Beijing airport on March 28.
Li, who works in a casino in the Philippines, told the court he
had not taken part in the production of the drugs.
He said Chen Shunshi had talked him into "helping out", but the
chemical reactions during narcotic production burned his eyes, and
he was forced to leave.
Chen Bing, a former prison friend of Liang Ruinan's, also denied
prosecutors' charges, saying that he thought Liang was "in the oil
painting business".
On April 2, 2006, Beijing police apprehended Chen Bing and
Liang. On May 7, they picked up Cheng. Li was arrested by Thai
police on December 19 in Thailand.
Adjudication on the case will be made some time next month, a
court official said.
(China Daily June 27, 2007)