World News – The recently concluded drama “Breaking Bad” is very popular in China. Perhaps a little too popular.
Chinese police have arrested a former Chinese college chemistry professor for joining forces with a local drug kingpin to produce the illicit drug methcathinone, a report Tuesday by Chinese Business View quoted police as saying.
The suspect, referred to only by his surname Lu, had taught chemistry at a college in the northwestern city of Xi’an before meeting the drug dealer, surnamed Chen, in 2013, the report said.
Lu allegedly provided Chen with the chemical formula and other technology to produce the methcathinone, a psychoactive stimulant sometimes known as “cat” in the US and as “the zombie drug” in Chinese.
Lu is also said to have procured methcathinone precursors for Chen, who had a workshop to manufacture the drug, with the final product sold around China as well as smuggled into Myanmar. The report didn’t specify when the arrests was made.
And this is apparently not the first time someone in China has sought to imitate Walter White, the drug-cooking chemistry teacher in “Breaking Bad” — in February of this year, a man nicknamed “Professor Xu” was arrested in Guangzhou for producing crystal methamphetamine, though in this case, Xu turned out to not be an actual teacher, according to CCTV news.
By Laura He, New York Post
