(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-09 20:43

HANGZHOU -- Four men stood trial in East China's Zhejiang Province for one of China's largest drug-trafficking cases on Tuesday, said local authorities.

Wu Jiang, Zeng Jianhua, Xu Zhikun and Pu Kui are accused of smuggling more than 3.8 tons of methaqualone worth US$26 million into South Africa. The case was heard by the people's intermediate court of Jinhua City.

The drug was seized in the form of more than 2.4 million pills by South African police in Johannesburg on May 10, 2006 from 203 wooden doors exported from Zhejiang, and Chinese police nabbed the the suspects on November 3, last year.

"It was one of the largest methaqualone smuggling cases in China," said Qu Limin, head of the anti-smuggling branch of Jinhua Customs.

Methaqualone is a sedative which was used in the 1960s and 1970s to treat insomnia. It has also been used as a recreational drug, particularly in the 1970s in North America and in recent years in South Africa.

An overdose of methaqualone can lead to cardiac or respiratory arrest.