Breaking Bad: School teacher ‘mastermind’ of marijuana syndicate selling to students at 37 universities across China
The suspect reportedly grew and packaged the drug in rented flat and took orders from sellers who located buyers through online discussions
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 December, 2015, 1:21pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 December, 2015, 1:49pm
Gloria Chan
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The suspect, a substitute maths teacher in Shouguang city in Shandong province, and drugs and paraphernalia seized in the investigation. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A high school substitute teacher in eastern China is the suspected mastermind behind a drug distribution ring that reportedly spanned the country and involved sellers allegedly as young as 16.
The police in Shouguang city in Shandong province placed the maths teacher, surnamed Sun, in criminal detention following eight months of investigation, Thepaper.cn reported on Tuesday.
Sun graduated from the Agricultural Department of Jilin University, and allegedly used his knowledge about farming to grow marijuana at a rented flat in the city. He stored and packaged the drug there before sending it to other provinces.
About 13kg of marijuana was found in the flat and his supplies mainly came from Canada and Guangxi province, the report said.
Sun is among 23 suspects detained in the investigation, and the police believe they sold to students from at least 37 universities across 16 provinces.
The authorities have seized more than 200kg marijuana so far.
The police also said Sun worked with 10 main distributors, including a secondary school pupil, aged 16, from Heilongjiang province.
The Wenzhou police in eastern Zhejiang province launched the investigation last May after officers noticed chat group discussions about large quantities of marijuana. Buyers and sellers used code names like “flyers” and “pilots” to discuss deals.
The administrator of the group chat would post ads and buyers would make orders through private messages apps.
Once a deal was reached, the seller would send the order form to Sun, who would package the marijuana, label it as tea leaves or chocolate and send it through express delivery services, the police said.
