A Taiwanese court has handed life sentences to two brothers who used a fishing boat to smuggle heroin and ketamine worth about NT$10 billion, a heavy blow to a major regional drug pipeline.

• Brothers Hsu Chen-lun and Hsu Chia-nung got life in prison for running the drugs on the Pingtung-registered boat "Tian Fa Cai 38."
• The boat picked up the drugs at sea last December and hid them deep in its freezer hold, but the coast guard found hundreds of heroin bricks and ketamine packs.
• One brother was already a fugitive, convicted earlier for smuggling nearly a ton of ketamine on another boat, and pulled his younger brother into a bigger operation.
• An accomplice who took orders from his own fugitive brother got 15 and a half years; seven foreign crew members got eight years each and will be deported afterward.

Outlook: Prosecutors had asked for life for all three main defendants, so appeals are likely, and the hunt continues for the fugitives still directing these runs from outside.