(CCTV)
Myanmar drug lord Naw Kham, who was convicted of murdering 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in 2011, was executed on Friday afternoon.
Naw Kham and three of his accomplices, identified as Hsang Kham, Yi Lai, and Zha Xika, were executed by lethal injection in the city of Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, according to the Intermediate People’s Court of Kunming.
Naw Kham and his gang members were found to have masterminded and colluded with Thai soldiers in an attack on two Chinese cargo ships, in October 2011. Thirteen Chinese sailors on the ships were killed in the attack.
The crime ring was busted in early 2012 in a joint operation by police from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Naw Kham was the boss of the largest armed drug trafficking gang on the Mekong River, which flows through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Naw Kham offered conflicting testimony over his role in the Mekong River murders.
He refused to accept responsibility for the murders at the first trial, but the other five suspects confessed in court and expressed their regret for the crimes committed against 13 crew members on board two Chinese ships, the Hua Ping and the Yu Xing 8.
According to the witness on a different boat, they were killed and then dumped in the Mekong River. The suspects accused these two Chinese ships carrying Myanmar soldiers of attacking the drug gang’s headquarters, and Naw Kham wanted revenge.
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