Chemistry professor arrested for drug business

WUHAN - A chemistry professor at a university in central China's Wuhan has been arrested on suspicion of producing hundreds of kg of a psychoactive drug and selling it to overseas buyers, the local public security bureau announced on Tuesday.

Police gave his surname as Zhang, an associate professor at an unnamed but "famous" university in Wuhan.

China's real-life Walter White, the fictional chemistry teacher and methamphetamine producer in US TV show "Breaking Bad", "found while acting as a visiting academic in Australia that some psychoactive drugs were in heavy demand, but hard to find there. He decided to make those drugs when he got back to China for profit," police said.

Zhang founded a chemical company in 2005 ostensibly producing medical coating and solvent. He recruited staff to produce drugs and sold them through mail order overseas, according to police.

Zhang's business came to light in November, when local customs agents checked overseas-bound parcels and found at least nine parcels from one mailer contained white powder.

The powder was found to be methylone, a psychoactive drug under heavy state restriction in China. Commonly used as a substitute for MDMA, methylone can lead people to lose control over their behavior and even cause death.

On June 17, customs and police raided Zhang's lab in Jiangxia District of Wuhan. Eight people were arrested and about 20 kg of drugs were seized.

From March to November 2014, Zhang's business sold at least 193 kg of drugs to buyers in Britain, Canada, the United States and Australia, making Zhang millions of dollars, police said.