28 held in Shanghai’s biggest drug bust ever
Print Edition
IN the biggest drug bust in recent history, Shanghai police smashed a gang operating in Shanghai and south China’s Guangdong Province, and seized about 2.4 tons of methamphetamine.
The biggest drug seizure by Shanghai police led to the arrest of 28 suspects. A huge methamphetamine lab has been broken up and a large amount of raw materials and equipment seized. Two guns, 11 bullets, four vehicles and 1.5 million yuan (US$240,000) were also seized, police said yesterday.
Police raided the drug factory in Luhe village in Guangdong on January 30.
Two tons of meth were found in liquid and solid state, and another 400 kilograms were in crystallization or “half-baked” state.
“We found three professional reactors which were used for producing meth in the factory, which is surprising because meth producers usually don’t even require a reactor,” An Wei, a police officer investigating the case, told Xinmin Evening News.
Police also said the factory could churn out more than 200 kilograms of meth daily and that the meth seized during the raid alone could yield hundreds of millions of yuan in the market.
It was the largest drug haul since 1949. Police said with the raid an important drug corridor between Guangdong and Shanghai was cut off.
The first clues emerged in August last year after a drug dealer surnamed Hu from Yiyang City in Hunan Province was found traveling constantly between Guangdong and Shanghai for drug transactions, police said.
During investigation, police discovered a gang of dealers from Hu’s hometown who were able to procure meth at favorable prices from a Guangdong source, an indication that they were very closely linked to the producer.
Police estimated that the gang transported between 20 to 30 kilograms of meth from Guangdong to Shanghai two or three times every month and managed to sell it off within a week, suggesting that there was a huge drug factory manufacturing meth.
By late December last year police had unraveled the entire drug dealing network.
A dealer surnamed Tang was the first to be arrested after police intercepted him at Fengjing toll station in Shanghai on January 20 and discovered 40 kilograms of meth on him.
Tang guided police to another dealer Hu. Eventually, police caught up with a man surnamed Yu and another man surnamed Chen who proved to be the ringleader and the owner of the drug factory.
After tracking down the location of the factory, police made the final arrest in Shangwei, Luhe and Lufeng in Guangdong on January 30.
Shanghai police said since 2010 they had busted 30 to 40 percent drug cases.
The number of drug addicts in the city had also risen by 30 percent since 2010.
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