Police in China have dismantled a drug-trafficking network involving a retired chemistry professor and a man with a master’s degree in chemistry.
Their gang is accused of producing chemicals used to manufacture etomidate, a controlled narcotic that has been misused in e-cigarettes known as “zombie vapes”.
Police traced the purchases to a man surnamed Huang, who had a master’s degree in chemistry and had spent years selling e-cigarettes in Shenzhen. The facilities were ostensibly being used to develop new medicines. The group allegedly produced only precursor chemicals in China before transporting them to Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, where they were converted into the finished drug.
Chinese police arrested 71 people and seized 73kg of etomidate, five tonnes of active ingredients and laboratory equipment, according to state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). The investigation began in 2024, when police conducting a routine inspection of a pharmaceutical technology company in Shandong province noticed that it had purchased unusually large quantities of six chemicals used as key ingredients in etomidate. Huang worked at the company for just three months before quitting. (Also read: NCR’s Walter White aka Heisenberg: Police bust meth lab operated by 9 foreigners in Greater Noida ) Police later identified Wu as the key figure behind the operation.
The operation spanned China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. He designed and refined the manufacturing process and used his connections to secure laboratory space in factories across five Chinese cities, according to investigators. This arrangement was intended to reduce the gang’s exposure to legal risks in China, according to Shandong police.
Nearly two years of investigation
The case remains under investigation, and the suspects are awaiting trial.
