The Chinese government has once again sent a strong message to drug traffickers after a court in China sentenced a Malaysian woman to death for trafficking huge amount of heroin.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, the 27-year-old Malaysian woman, identified as Anusuya Karunakaran, was found guilty of attempting to smuggle three kilos of heroin to China.

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Court records showed that Karunakaran tried to slip into mainland China from Macao carrying three kilograms of the illegal drugs through the port in Gongbei in the Chinese city of Zhuhai.

The Intermediate People's Court in south China's Guangdong province said the Malaysian woman was arrested by Chinese authorities at Gongbei in November 2014.

The woman reportedly hid the huge amount of heroin among picture books in the suitcase that she was carrying. Chinese Customs officers in Gongbei Port, however, detected the illegal drugs.

The court confiscated all the drugs and, on Wednesday, meted the maximum penalty of death to the woman, with a two-year reprieve.

Authorities said China is serious in its fight against illegal drugs and reminded drug smugglers that drug-related offenses in China carry the penalty of death.

Meanwhile, the police in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, detained three foreigners for their alleged involvement in trafficking and selling illegal drugs, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

The three foreign nationals, according to local police, were members of a drug syndicate that has been operating in Guangdong Province and that the arrest came after more than three months of surveillance and investigation.

The three foreigners were among the six suspects that have been detained after elements of the Guangzhou drug control office initiated an anti-illegal drugs operation in the city.

Aside from detaining the six suspects, including the three foreigners, the police from China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Guangzhou also confiscated at least 12 kilograms of heroin, about US$63,000 cash, a vehicle, and destroyed a drug storage facility.

The drug ring reportedly smuggles illegal drugs from border areas in the western part of the country to the city of Guangzhou.

TagsChina Illegal Drugs, China drugs, China Drug Trafficking, China Heroin, China Death Sentence