Some Chinese marijuana users make food with the drug which can induce a similar high to smoking it. Photo: IC

A Chinese suspect with similarities to the subject of the American TV series "Breaking Bad" was busted after customs officers cracked a case involving the smuggling of marijuana from the US, and growing marijuana indoors in China.

The customs office in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, arrested three suspects who tested positive for marijuana, confiscated 460 grams of marijuana, which was smuggled from the US, and uprooted six living marijuana plants in a rental apartment in Chengdu, news site thepaper.cn reported on Wednesday.

Customs found marijuana in a package marked "TOY" from Los Angeles in late January and immediately filed a case and began investigating the package, which was finally traced to its intended receiver, surnamed Su. 

Su, the leader of the three suspects, was an overseas student in Canada who got addicted to marijuana in Canada. After returning to China, Su, while smuggling marijuana from the US, started to learn how to grow marijuana from an English-language website, got marijuana seeds illegally and began growing the plant. 

According to Su's neighbors, Su always went in and out the apartment with peers and the apartment often smelled weird. 

Actually, Su lied to his parents twice to get more than 20,000 yuan ($2989) to buy marijuana seeds and growth equipment to harvest marijuana. Relying on Su's care around the clock, the survival rate of the marijuana was nearly 70 percent.

China's Criminal Law stipulates that those growing illicit plants face up to a five-year prison sentence. 

Criminal gangs are getting younger with many including overseas Chinese students. In 2018, customs detected two hemp smuggling cases by returnees.

Global Times