A court in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao on Friday handed down death sentences to four drug traffickers.

Another nine drug dealers were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and eight more were sentenced to life in prison, the Qingdao municipal intermediate people's court said in a statement.

All the 21 were deprived of political rights for life and their personal assets were confiscated, it added.

Another 51 dealers in a total of nine drug trafficking cases were given jail terms ranging from two to 15 years.

The number of drug trafficking cases in the city has been on the rise over the past years, said Liu Shiming, head of the No. 1 criminal tribunal at the court.

Most of the drugs seized were crystal meth and they were mainly sourced from places like the southwestern city of Chengdu, the southern province of Guangdong and provinces in the northeast of China, Liu said.