Foreigner among 9 suspects held in international drug trafficking case
Nine suspects, including a foreign national, have been detained for allegedly trafficking crystal meth from China to an unnamed foreign country.
Shanghai police said on Monday that the gang was rounded up on September 21 when two of the suspects were about to board a plane with 2.2 kilograms of crystal meth.
Police declined to reveal the nationality of the foreign suspect but said they started to investigate the case in August based on clues from another case that had been solved.
The alleged ringleader of the gang, surnamed Yuan, was said to be in charge of buying drugs from a source and contacting buyers located in the foreign country, while another suspect, surnamed Qiu, had the job of getting the other suspects to take the drugs abroad.
Days before September 21, police found out that the gang had bought a new batch of drugs and planned to deliver them via two flights from Pudong International Airport.
On September 21, a suspect surnamed Zhou took a taxi to Qiu’s place to pick up a blue suitcase at about 2pm and then went to the airport. Two hours later, just when Zhou was about to board the plane with the foreign suspect in the gang, police seized them and their suitcase, which police said contained 2.2 kilograms of crystal meth.
The remaining suspects, including Yuan and Qiu, were picked up from their residences in Yangpu and Jing’an districts and Pudong on the same day.
Police said they discovered about 600,000 yuan (US$91,200) in cash that was suspected to be related to drug deals.