TAIYUAN -- Five drug traffickers have been sentenced to death and another six sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in North China's Shanxi province.

The Changzhi Intermediate People's Court handed down the verdicts on 32 defendants in three drug-trafficking cases on Monday, the Shanxi Provincial Higher People's Court said Tuesday.

Fourteen were sentenced to life in prison and the remaining seven were given jail terms of at least two years.

In one case, 27 members of a drug ring were found guilty of trafficking methcathinone across provinces between August 2015 and March 2016, the court said.

Tuesday was International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.