Chinese Police's Cinematic Raid On Rural "Meth Village" Nets More Than 3 Tons of Meth
More than one percent of the village has been arrested.
By Sadho Ram — 06 Jan 2014, 03:02 PM — Updated almost 11 years ago
Call it “Breaking Bad: China Edition”
Reports of raids conducted at the end of December and just publicized today, which saw paramilitary troops and police officers used helicopters and speedboats to seize three tons of methamphetamine (a.k.a. crystal meth) and 23 tonnes of raw materials used in its production.
businessinsider.in
The massive raid targeted Boshe village in Guangdong province, a difficult-to-reach hamlet near the city of Lufeng
Police check seized crystal meth at Boshe village, Lufeng, Guangdong province
Image via telegraph.co.ukMore than 3,000 police officers equipped with helicopters and motorboats and accompanied by dogs descended on a southern Chinese village notorious for making crystal meth, seizing 3 tons of the drug and 23 tons of raw materials and arresting 182 people.
theverge.com
Pictures of Sunday’s raid published on Chinese news websites showed dozens of police vehicles massed in the village of traditional-style, single-story tile-roofed homes separated by narrow alleyways, many passable only by bicycle or on foot
Police cars are seen during a raid where three tonnes of crystal meth were seized at Boshe village, Lufeng
Image via avaxnews.comIn a cinematic operation that owed more to the rifle-clogged slums of South America than China's rural south, helicopters gave cover to security forces as they swept into Guangdong province's Boshe village last Sunday.
telegraph.co.ukBoshe is a notorious hot spot for drug making and trafficking, and it's believed more than 18 drug cartels were affected by the arrests
Provincial anti-drug official Qiu Wei told the state-run Xinhua news agency that more than one-fifth of the village’s 2,000 households were connected to the drug trade and that the town had been providing a third of the crystal meth made in China over the last three years.
Police said they seized nine guns, ammunition, a homemade bomb and knives. Three officers were reportedly injured in the operation, including two who were shot and one who was struck by a car.
gawker.com
Just 14,000 people live in the village of Boshe, on the northern fringes of the South China Sea. But the once bucolic community had reportedly morphed into a real life version of Breaking Bad.
Qiu Wei, a senior anti-narcotics officer, told state media a third of China's entire methamphetamine or crystal meth supply had been coming from this one small village. He did not specify how much that was.
telegraph.co.uk
The operation to retake Boshe began at around 4am last Sunday, when Li Chunsheng, Guangdong's vice governor, gave the order to invade, the Legal Daily newspaper reported.
Police entered the village "with lightning speed" and over the coming hours 182 arrests were made in the surrounding region, as security agents carrying assault rifles dragged grimacing suspects from their hideouts and homes.
Once known for its lychee fruit, Boshe village is an insular, some would say backward, place where all the residents are said to share a single surname, Cai.
In recent months, some inhabitants had taken to online forums, complaining that the extensive meth-making operations -- a process that generates significant amounts of noxious waste -- had contaminated the water and soil, rendering it impossible to grow crops.
Piles of waste reportedly littered the town, and residents openly stored the raw ingredients beside their homes.
gawker.com
Earlier attempts by authorities to stamp out drug activity in Boshe reportedly were thwarted by an extensive network of lookouts in the village’s narrow streets, as well as even human barricades of women, children and the elderly.
businessinsider.in
The recent raids represent Guangdong's largest drug seizure ever in terms of drugs and raw material seized, arrests, and co-operation between government units.
