‘Breaking Bad’ in China: Arrest of ex-school employee highlights meth problem
A policeman stands guard as authorities destroy drugs at a factory in Guiyang, China, in June 2013. More than 1,400 pounds of drugs including heroin and methamphetamine, along with more than 1,600 pounds of opium poppies, were destroyed to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in 2013.
Reporting from Beijing — He was a former middle school employee in a small city near China’s border with Vietnam. Police say he was also making and selling methamphetamine.
“#BreakingBad in real life,” tweeted the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, after state media reported Monday on the September arrest, a reference to the now-ended American TV series about a teacher turned meth dealer.
The suspect, a 35-year-old with the surname Lu, was formerly an admissions director at a vocational middle school, the state-run news service Guangxi News Net reported. The agency posted photos of complex-looking lab equipment scattered throughout a drab apartment: massive beakers, translucent white bottles, boxy metal machines.
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Authorities in the city of Hechi, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, detained Lu on Sept. 28 after a lengthy investigation, the news service reported.
The arrest underscores what has become increasingly evident: China has a meth problem.
China had more than 14 million drug users by the end of 2014, according to the China National Narcotics Control Commission, which tallied a 36% rise in users of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine over 2013.
Analysts say that in recent years, meth — known in Mandarin as bingdu — has overtaken heroin as China’s drug of choice.
Synthetic narcotics are “gaining popularity among the young,” said Liu Yuejin, the commission’s deputy chief, the state-run newspaper Global Times reported in May.
When police raided Lu’s 1,300-square-foot apartment in September, they confiscated 400 pounds of methamphetamine-cooking materials, and nearly 80 pounds of methamphetamine, according to Guangxi News Net.
“This is the most advanced methamphetamine-producing equipment and the greatest volume of methamphetamine ingredients I’ve ever seen,” Jiang Jiteng, the chief of Hechi’s anti-narcotics department, told the news service.
Lu became addicted to drugs in 2012, according to the report, after he lost his job at the vocational middle school. In early 2015, he moved into an apartment in the school’s dormitory complex, the news service reported, and learned how to produce methamphetamine to satisfy his addiction. Later, he began finding customers on social media sites and sending them the drug via express delivery services.
Police detained three of his customers, and tracked Lu down online, according to the report.
In January, Chinese police raided a meth-producing stronghold in the southeastern province of Guangdong, confiscating three tons of methamphetamine and more than 100 tons of methamphetamine ingredients.
The siege of Boshe village involved more than 3,000 police officers; they detained 182 alleged drug ring members, according to state media. According to provincial police, more than 20% of the village’s 1,700 households were involved in the production of methamphetamine and other drugs.
Several local Communist Party officials were also detained on suspicion of protecting the drug ring, state media reported.
Tommy Yang in The Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report.
Follow @JRKaiman on Twitter for news out of China.
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