China's most-wanted drug trafficking suspect was arrested after five years on the run when two informers turned him in for a $24,000 reward, China Daily said.
Liu Zhaohua was the alleged ringleader of a widespread drug trafficking network, suspected of manufacturing up to 14 tons of the methamphetamine known as "ice." The drugs were made at an underground plant in northwest China's Ningxia province.
Liu was arrested March 5 in a rented house in his hometown of Fu'an in east China's Fujian province.
It was the first time a reward had been offered nationwide for information on drug dealers. A reward presentation ceremony was held Thursday in Beijing, but the informants did not show up to receive the prize, fearing for their safety if their identities were revealed.
Police officers from their home province of Guangxi received the money on their behalf and would later share it between the two, the report said.
Chinese law provides for sentences ranging from 15 years in prison to execution for producing as much as 50 grams of the illegal drug.
Informers were commonly rewarded in ancient China, but the People's Republic of China did not adopt the practice until 2000.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
