Man jailed for 7 years over mail-order drug trafficking
The convicted man turned synthetic cannabinoids into liquid for e-cigarettes.
A man was sentenced to seven years' jail and fined 7,000 yuan (US$1,100) on Wednesday for trafficking a new type of synthetic cannabinoid, Jing'an District procurators said
The man, surnamed Song, was found guilty of using a fake name to transport the drugs from neighboring Jiangsu Province through express parcels under the label of "files" and selling them in Shanghai through express mail and in-city express, the procurators said.
The synthetic cannabinoids were made into liquid for e-cigarettes
Police seized five bottles of colorless, transparent liquids, totaling 28.89 grams, at Song's temporary residence in August.
All contained the cannabinoid ADB-BUTINACA, said the procurators.
ADB-BUTINACA, normally used in research and forensic applications, has been listed as a controlled drug since July by the National Narcotics Control Committee
China is the first country in the world to list 18 new psychoactive substances as controlled drugs.
Last month, the committee released a new conversion table covering Ketamine and seven types of synthetic cannabinoids.
In the table, 1 gram of Ketamine is equivalent to 0.1 gram of heroin; a gram of seven kinds of synthetic cannabinoids are equal to between 0.2 and 5 grams of heroin.
Moving and selling these new types of drugs through delivery has become the major way of drug trafficking, according to the procurators.
"Most of the cases we have charged recently, have been trafficked through express mails," said Zhang Zhongping, the chief of the second procuratorial department of the Jing'an District People's Procuratorate.
"And the transactions are always carried out online, which is very hard to trace."
