Police have arrested 40 suspects after decoding an acrostic poem texted by a drug kingpin to a pair of accomplices in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The swoop was made after the message's intended recipients, two women assigned to collect him, were unable to decipher the poem.

Police intercepted the text message on March 30 shortly after it was sent by a drug lord, surnamed Lian, who was returning from deal made in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The poem literally reads, "I have achieved it, and endless memories make me upset," the Nanjing daily Modern Express reported on August 8. 

Although initially stumped, police soon realized the poem was acrostic. Read top to bottom, the first characters of each line combined to form the message, "pick me up at Magou."

Police were immediately dispatched to Magou, a highway rest area about eight kilometers southwest of Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. There they arrested Lian, who was carrying two kilograms of methamphetamines. His two female accomplices were arrested the following day at the Yancheng West highway exit, where they had waited the previous night for Lian.

The women admitted to police that they had not understood Lian's poem, saying they believed he had simply wanted to express his feelings.

Police arrested 40 suspects from both Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces based on bank records relating to drug deals and Lian's confession.