A WOMAN with a master s degree was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday for trafficking 788 grams of heroin into China from Malaysia.
Shenzhen Intermediate People s Court also confiscated the property of Pei Ying, 38, a native of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province.
The court found Pei had been invited to Malaysia in October by a British man identified as Allen Kewel, who Pei met through the Internet. Kewel said a friend, Smith, would pay for her expenses in Kuala Lumpur, as well as her return ticket, on the condition that she took some gold samples to his customers in China, for which she would be paid US$1,000.
Once she was in Kuala Lumpur, Smith gave Pei a new suitcase and a plastic bag, which he said contained the samples for his customers. Pei packed her personal items into the luggage and boarded a flight to Shenzhen.
On landing, Pei was intercepted by Shenzhen custom officers and was found to be carrying about 788 grams of powder compressed in blocks and wrapped in tin foil, hidden in the lining of the luggage. The heroin was found to be just over 40 percent pure.
Pei appeared at the court for the first hearing June 23 on drug-possession charges, which she denied, saying she had no knowledge of the drugs. She insisted that the US$1,000 that had been promised was not payment for delivery, but part of a sum owed to her. (Han Ximin)
