On the evening of February 6, a 59-year-old cleaner innocently mopping the aisles of a large supermarket in Taizhou, Jiangsu was suddenly set upon by a group of heavy-set young men, dragged away with her hands bound behind her back.
What might've looked at first like a gang of ruffians bullying an old lady, however, was actually a unit of undercover cops taking down a notorious local drug lord.
Officers found more than 30 grams of heroin concealed amongst Ms. Liu's cleaning supplies, the gear commanding a street value of over RMB6,000.
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Liu and her boyfriend, surnamed Qin, were both out-of-towners who came to Jiangsu from Yunnan and Sichuan respectively to look for work. They met eight years ago and moved in together soon thereafter, but Qin, 18 years her junior, was soon hooked on smack and shooting up the couple's savings. Unwilling to break it off with him, Liu decided to deal on the side to support Qin's habit.
Luckily for Liu, her hometown in southwest China was bang smack in the middle of the infamous Golden Triangle, where drugs traded hands both freely and cheaply. Every time she returned to Taizhou from trips back home, the value of the dope she pocketed in Yunnan had appreciate twofold en route.
As a migrant laborer on the very bottom of the big city scrap heap, Liu's disguise was perfect: no one ever gave her a second look. People often speak of China's invisible underclass, and they're not kidding; but to Liu, being invisible to locals suited her just right.
Liu eventually gave in to Qin's suggestion that they start cutting the heroin to increase their margins, and were soon back in the black. Just as they began to rebuild their savings, however, they were sold down the river by one of the customers: an old friend of Qin's from back in his hometown.
By the end of the day, Liu and Qin were both in custody, their hopes of piecing their lives back together once again dashed by Qin and Liu's blind devotion to him.
[Images via Qianjiang Wanbao]
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