China executes three Japanese citizens convicted for drug smuggling and trafficking

BEIJING - The Supreme People’s Court in China on Friday executed three Japanese citizens on charges of drug smuggling and trafficking.

The trio Teruo Takeda, Hironori Ukai and Katsuo Mori were put to death in northeastern Liaoning Province, reports Xinhua.

Sixty-seven year old Takeda was convicted on charges of buying about 5 kg of methamphetamine in China in June 2003 and for instructing another Japanese to take the drugs out of China.

The court said the police arrested Takeda in June 2004, when he was trading more than 2.9-kilogram stimulants with the other drug dealers.

Ukai was arrested at Dalian airport in September 2003, when he and a Korean accomplice tried to pass a security check with wrapped drugs hidden under clothes. The police recovered about 1.5 kg drugs from Ukai.

The police arrested Mori in July 2003 with about 1.25 kg drugs, when he was trying to board a plane from Shenyang to Japan. (ANI)