A court in Central China's Hunan Province sentenced five people to death for transporting and manufacturing drugs.

The Intermediate People's Court of the city of Shaoyang pronounced the verdicts on Tuesday, noting that in one case, 20 people had transported and manufactured more than 1.2 tonnes of drugs since July 2016.

The court handed down death penalties to five prime culprits, death sentence with reprieve to another five criminals and life imprisonment to three.

Seven criminals were sentenced to three to 15 years in prison.