Police in China say that drug dealers are using cryptocurrencies for payment and the Telegram app to communicate.

The police in the Shanghai region of China have busted a drug trafficking ring that communicates with its suppliers and buyers using the Telegram app. A report by the Chinese news portal Shobserver said that the drug ring depends on virtual currencies for payment.

Dealers bury the bag

The report said that the drug business in the province operates via a drop system, implying that the dealers “bury the bag” in advance for the buyers, which means keeping the drugs at a location before directing the buyer to it after payments are made. The buyers are directed to the location where the drug has been hidden after they make payments using virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.

Written down addresses

In a statement translated by this writer, Li Ke, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, said,

“Drug vendors who adopt a buried package method generally hide dozens of packs of drugs in multiple places in advance, and after writing the address, they will be sold to buyers without personal contact with those buyers.”

The officer said that a lead seller named Zhao was arrested, thereby giving investigators a lead on how the drug syndicate operated in the region.

The lead to pre-hidden drugs

Zhao, 39, was arrested with a trove of information on his computer after a law enforcement officer posed as a buyer. This included the location of all the buried bags. Zhao had to list them all because there were too many to remember. Afterwards, the police seized 23 packs of marijuana and 208 grams of hemp.

The report said that Zhao admitted that he contacted his supplier via Telegram. The supplier drops off his consignment of drugs in a rural location, where he picks up the pre-hidden goods and goes back to Shanghai. This is after he has paid with the agreed cryptocurrency.