Shanghai police dismantled cross provincial cannabis trafficking gangs, contacted overseas software, buried hidden goods in other places, and conducted virtual currency payment transactions | Cannabis | Shanghai

Late at night, a strange figure sneaked into the hallway of the community, reached out and groped around, fixing a plastic bag containing stamps and marijuana products in a hidden corner with a magnet. About a month later, another dark figure carefully took away the plastic bag. A heinous drug transaction was carried out in the dark without anyone knowing.

Drug addicts and traffickers contact through overseas social media platforms. Drug traffickers bury packages and hide goods in advance, and drug addicts self collect goods according to the map, and then use virtual currency transactions to make payments... On the eve of June 26th International Anti Drug Day, Shanghai police disclosed a case of a new type of drug trafficking and cannabis cultivation, processing, and sales gang that was cracked this year.

Behind the case, the Internet drug trafficking link with zero contact in the whole process has become the main form of current drug trade, and also the key proposition that drug control must face.

Shadow and Burial

In February of this year, the Putuo police obtained a clue during their work: someone sold the drug LSD, commonly known as "stamps", through extremely covert means.

This is a strong hallucinogen that often adsorbs onto absorbent paper with special patterns, hence the name "stamp". A "stamp" is only one-third the size of a fingernail cap, and can be "smoked" when held in the mouth. Its hallucinogenic effect is several times that of traditional drugs such as marijuana.

The covert drug trading methods make it difficult for the police to investigate. "Drug traffickers and drug users are contacted through overseas social media, and neither party has had any contact throughout the drug transaction. The identity of drug traffickers remains a mystery," said a police officer from the Fifth Squadron of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Putuo Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

In order to identify drug traffickers, anti drug police disguised themselves as buyers and managed to order some "stamps", hoping to start from the delivery point and target suspicious targets. The cunning drug dealer has a high level of anti reconnaissance awareness, requiring buyers to pay for the goods through virtual currency, and then only through the AI response function of social media, giving buyers a location and a photo to pick up the goods on their own.

The pickup point for this time is at the bottom of a mailbox on the bottom floor of a building in an old residential area in Yichuan. The drug "stamp" is hidden in a plastic bag that has been sucked in by a magnet.

This new type of trading method, in jargon, is called "burying packages". Drug traffickers tightly wrap and seal drugs in plastic bags, search for suitable hiding places, and then fix them in hidden corners such as bridge openings, residential building mailboxes, etc. with double-sided tape, magnet stones, etc. Then inform buyers of the location of the burial and let them pick up the goods themselves.

"Drug traffickers who use the method of burying packages for transactions usually hide dozens of packages of drugs in multiple places, record their addresses, and then conduct transactions at intervals. Because many old residential areas only retain surveillance for a few months, even if the location is exposed, it is very likely that they cannot find the person who buried the package earlier." said Li, Chief of the Anti Drug Department of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The police reviewed a massive amount of video materials around the community and eventually discovered suspicious figures with sneaky movements: in the darkness, the figure of a man frequently appeared at the "pickup point" and multiple surrounding communities, staying for very short periods of time each time, which is likely to be "burying bags".

Following the investigation, the police confirmed that the true identity of Heiying was a 39 year old man named Zhao. On February 16th this year, the police arrested Zhao and brought him to justice.

At the arrest scene, the police found a file called "address" in his computer. Due to too many "buried" points, Zhao recorded the information and photos of each point in this file and randomly sent them to the buyer during the transaction. Based on these address information, the police searched one by one and seized 23 packages of marijuana drugs weighing about 208 grams. They also investigated and dealt with multiple drug users who had previously traded with Zhao along the way.

Marijuana and Family

Zhao is just a part of the drug sales network. Who was his previous employer? In order to uncover the mastermind behind the scenes and cut off the drug trafficking network, the police have launched a more in-depth investigation.

According to Zhao's account, he bought very few "stamps" and after selling them out, he met an Anhui friend through overseas chat software and purchased a batch of marijuana from the other party through "separation of people and goods".

The so-called "separation of people and goods" refers to Zhao making payments through virtual currency specified by the other party, then going to a rural area in Anhui, obtaining pre hidden goods in a grassland, bringing them back to Shanghai for packaging, and then using overseas chat software to sell them to drug users at a higher price.

The task force immediately rushed to Anhui and found a suspicious woman named Chen by reviewing surveillance videos around Zhao's pickup point. According to the investigation surrounding Chen, her marijuana comes from her relative, a disabled man named Shi. At this point, a criminal gang that grows, processes, and sells marijuana has emerged.

According to the police, Shi is the leader of this gang, and he used his kinship as a bond to recruit multiple members of the gang. After Shi contacted the drug buyer, Chen, Wang and others "buried the package" and shipped the goods. Chen, Wang, Liu and others are also responsible for the cultivation and processing of cannabis.

On March 13 of this year, the joint task force of Shanghai and Anhui provinces collected the net and captured 8 suspect such as Mr. Shi and Mr. Chen, seized nearly 14 kilograms of cannabis products and original cannabis plants, as well as various processing and packaging equipment, destroyed four cannabis cultivation dens disguised as tea shops, and seized more than 260 live cannabis plants.

To the surprise of the police, this drug trafficking gang has a high level of professionalism. They not only built a greenhouse with constant temperature and humidity in the rented house, purchased sunglasses, but also cultivated cannabis plants with a horizontal crown of 3 square meters by consulting experts to study the soil components suitable for cannabis growth. Before being caught, they had already started researching methods for marijuana grafting and soilless cultivation.

Dark web and secret language

With the investigation of the case, new types of drug crimes such as online drug trafficking and "burying packages" trading are worthy of public vigilance.

In recent years, the surging trend of online drug trafficking has become active. The use of overseas social media platforms for communication, "buried package" transactions, and virtual currency payments is forming a network drug industry chain.

"Foreign and dark networks have become the main channels for drug trafficking," relevant sources told reporters. As domestic parties continue to increase their crackdown and prevention efforts, drug traffickers are turning to more covert overseas network positions. For example, using "burn after reading" overseas chat software for communication, or infiltrating the "dark web" for drug trading.

"From the trend, overseas social media platforms and 'dark networks' are playing an increasingly important role in various aspects of drug crimes, and have become a greenhouse for the development and growth of drug crimes." Li, Chief of the Anti Drug Department of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, said that the police are relying on increasingly developed network investigation technology, innovating multiple police cooperation models, researching and exploring technical and tactical methods for combating online drug-related illegal activities, and continuously improving the effectiveness of combating online drug crimes.

Drug traffickers also carefully design code words and codes to attract knowledgeable target buyers. For example, on some overseas social media platforms, drug traffickers will use patterns such as leaves, balloons, pills, lightning, as well as drug related slogans, codes, and slang to post a large amount of information, attracting drug buyers to contact. The secret words for heroin are "lion shaking its head" and "brick", while ecstasy is also known as "forgetting oneself" and "E child". The synonyms for methamphetamine are "meat" and "pork". In order to evade regulation, the update speed of these "code words" is also very fast.

In the process of drug capital circulation, some drug traffickers set up multiple intermediate links to cover up the truth of the transaction and increase the difficulty for the police to trace the drug capital. The method of paying for toxic assets through virtual currency, as adopted in this case, has also become a new trend in the circulation of toxic assets.

In response to the trend of drug crime networking, the Shanghai police actively carried out online inspection and offline search of drug related information, strengthened the analysis and research on the changes of criminal tactics of drug related personnel, and successively cracked 30 online drug related cases and arrested 37 suspect.

Overall, with the increasing efforts to crack down on drug-related crimes, the supply, consumption, and abuse of drugs in Shanghai continue to decrease, and the number of drug-related crimes is showing a downward trend.