Hongkou District police have cracked Shanghai's largest case of ecstasy drug smuggling, arresting four suspects and seizing 10,402 pills, a municipal Public Security Bureau spokeswoman said.
"The amount of the confiscated pills broke the city's record of 5,000, which were detected by the district in 1998," spokeswoman Fang Dinghua said.
The probe began in late October when Shanghai police arrested a suspected drug user and dealer. That man informed police a major ecstasy deal would occur there in November.
A week later, police arrested Sheng Ming while he allegedly sold pills outside a nightclub. Officers confiscated 118 pills in that incident. Two days after Sheng's arrest, police picked up Guangdong native Yu Ming and confiscated over 10,000.
"Unlike the ecstasies pills made from the synthetic derivative of 'ice', or methamphetamine hydrochloride, these pills were directly made of ice and are more harmful," said An Wei from Hongkou District Security Bureau.
Ecstasy and ice seizures are on the rise in China as law enforcers crack down on illicit drug use.
Experts say most ecstasy users are young men around 20 years old who have little schooling and men slightly older who have criminal records.
"The crackdown on ecstasy has been a focus of our campaign against drugs," Fang said.
(China Daily December 27, 2001)
