Online drug dealers jailed for six months

Two drug dealers were sentenced to six months in jail, with a fine of 1,000 yuan (US$146), for selling 6 grams of new-type liquid drug via the messaging app WeChat, prosecutors in Xuhui District said on Thursday.

According to Xuhui District People's Procuratorate, in December last year, Xuhui police zeroed in on a WeChat account that sold a new-type liquid drug Rhino, a kind of sex vibrator. The drug contains 5-Methoxytryptamine, a structural analog of known tryptamine hallucinogens and a substance found in mammalian brain.

They soon traced the account owner Liu in Langfang City, Hebei Province. After investigation, police officers found that the liquid drugs he sold were acquired from another WeChat account "Lifu." In January this year, Zhou, who ran the "Lifu" account, was caught by police in the northern province's Tangshan City.

Investigation showed that Zhou used to sell Rhino on his online store. However, since it's a prohibited drug, Zhou's store was shut down by the e-commerce platform in early December. He then tried to sell the drug on WeChat and Liu became an agent, who resold the drugs he got from Zhou.

On December 17, a customer joined Liu's WeChat list and asked if he sold Rhino. Liu then paid Zhou 150 yuan, the price told to the customer, for a potion of the liquid drug. Zhou paid another retailer Xie, who was dealt with in a separate case, 85 yuan and had Xie mail the drug to the buyer.

The 65-yuan profit from the deal was later shared by Liu and Zhou. Liu took 45 yuan and Zhou took the rest 20 yuan. Four days later, Liu bought another potion of Rhino from Zhou.

These two potions, weighing 6.09 grams, were later seized by police. They both tested positive for 5-Methoxytryptamine.