One of the mainland's most notorious drug kingpins was executed yesterday for manufacturing, trafficking and dealing Ice, Xinhua reported.
Liu Zhaohua was sentenced to death on June 26, 2006 - International Anti-Drug Day - by Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court for making 18 tonnes of methamphetamine.
The judge was quoted by the Guangzhou-based Information Times, as saying the Ice Liu alone had made, worth more than US$5.5 billion, had outweighed the total quantity of the drug seized worldwide that year.
But Liu refused to accept the judgment, based on the chemical make-up of the drug. He maintained he had never used the formula he was accused of using, which involved ephedrine, a chemical regulated by law, in making Ice. Instead, he said he had used propiophenone, an easily accessible chemical used to make rat poison.
According to a report by China Central Television, Liu had learned that secret method for making Ice from a retired professor at Xian Jiaotong University, by disguising himself as a researcher looking into a weight control product.
The Guangdong Higher People's Court rejected Liu's appeal and upheld the original sentence from April last year after considering evidence and testimony from chemical experts from the provincial Public Security Bureau, which confirmed that the chemical was not rat poison.