Boshe () is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
in
Jiaxi,
Lufeng,
Shanwei
Shanwei (), or Swabue is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Jieyang to the east, Meizhou and Heyuan to the north, Huizhou to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south. I ...
,
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
China.
The village has been in existence from at least the 13th century.
As of January 2014, Boshe's population totaled about 14,000.
The village has attracted international attention for being a long time centre for
meth
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamphe ...
and
ketamine
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a recreational drug. It is one of the safest anesthetics, as, in contrast with opiates, ether, and propofol, it suppresses ...
production,
and has been called "China’s number one drug village" and "the ''
Breaking Bad'' village" by the international press,
and was nicknamed "The Fortress" by locals.
Chinese authorities successfully raided it in December 2013,
but drug production in the village has continued.
Drug production
For years, Chinese police attempted to raid the village, but were unsuccessful.
Sometimes, villagers were notified of their arrival, and hid drug production equipment.
Other times, villagers would link arms to block roads into the village, encircle police officers with motorcycles, or even threaten them with
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...
s and
grenades, which would sometimes simply be replicas.
Eventually, elite Chinese paramilitary police began preparing an operation to infiltrate the village with informants, and eventually raid the village.
Preparations lasted a total of six years, and involved replacing certain informants sent to the village, out of fears that they began collaborating with local drug producers.
At approximately 4 AM on December 29, 2013,
Chinese police raided 77 production sites in Boshe and arrested 182 people,
including local
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
head Cai Dongjia,
who was accused to leading drug production in the village.
The operation involved 3,000 Chinese police officers, some of which arrived via helicopters and speedboats.
Chinese police also jammed phone signals to ensure that no one could alert drug producers in Boshe as to the police's presence.
Many of the houses in the town were found to have stacks of cash,
gold bar
A gold bar, also called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced ...
s, and illegal firearms.
A makeshift explosives factory was also uncovered.
In the weeks that followed, Chinese authorities continued searching houses in the village, and tracked down numerous individuals believed to be involved with drug production.
One villager in Boshe quoted by the
South China Morning Post alleged that about 40% of the village's 14,000 people were directly involved with drug production, and that many who weren't were still involved in
drug trafficking.
The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
echoed a similar claim, noting that some villagers believed that "up to half of the village was involved in making chemical drugs".
As a consequence of the immense drug production in the village, villagers and waste collection officials note that the soil and water near the village were highly polluted, and that rampant chemical dumping was commonplace in the village.
The village drew international attention again in October 2015, when a former
teacher was arrested for producing drugs in his own basement, drawing comparisons to the character
'', who did the same.
that "over a third of meth consumed in China originates from Boshe and neighbouring villages",
and that "one in five families is directly involved in drug production".