Jilin police seize 55 suspects and 7.6 tonnes of marijuana in five-province bust
Police in Jilin announced on 4 June 2009 that they had seized 55 suspects and 1,400 kg of refined marijuana plus 6,200 kg of semi-finished marijuana in an operation spanning 19 cities in nine provinces, China's biggest marijuana case. The network began with twelve farming families in Changling County who had planted hemp since 2004, working with contacts from Xinjiang.
🇨🇳 Caolaofu village, Yongjiu, Changling County, Songyuan, Jilin Province · China
On 4 June 2009, Jilin provincial police announced the roundup of 55 suspects in
a marijuana growing, processing and trafficking network spanning 19 cities in
nine provinces and regions, including Xinjiang, Chongqing and Heilongjiang.[1][2]Acting on a tip received in June 2008, officers found that twelve farming
households had planted 12.6 hectares of marijuana in Yongjiu township near
Songyuan, and traced a total of 600 hectares of planted marijuana, with the
earliest planting dating back to 2004.[1]
Police confiscated1,400 kg of refined marijuana and 6,200 kg of semi-finished
marijuana, along with 300,000 yuan in drug money, five vans and drug-making
equipment.[1]The growers were ordinary farming families in Changling County:
Zhang You began planting hemp in the spring of 2007 on about a quarter of a
hectare, and by 2008 twelve related households across three villages were
involved, moving the crop with contacts from Xinjiang.[2]
The key arrests came in January 2009, including Alim, a Xinjiang native, caught
in a drug deal in Changchun on 9 January, and members of Zhang You’s family
detained in the days after.[2]Zhang’s daughter, a mother of two young
children, was released on bail the day after her arrest.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
A translated magazine account of the same case gives 53 suspects rather than the 55 in the police announcement used here.
The reports do not state whether the 600 hectares of planted marijuana were destroyed or what happened to them.
No trial outcomes for the arrested growers were reported in these accounts.
The farmers said they did not know their hemp broke the law, and the magazine account notes China draws no clear line between industrial hemp and marijuana.
Luohu Customs intercepted a woman in white and two companions entering without declaration and found one half-burned homemade cannabis cigarette in a candy box in her backpack. The cigarette was confirmed as cannabis weighing 0.32 grams net, and the case was transferred to the customs anti-smuggling department.
Nuoliang anti-drug workers uprooted more than 100 wild cannabis plants near a villager's fields in Cangyuan County after a resident tip. The workers found the patch during a follow-up carpet search and cleared all plants on the spot.
Customs officers at Zhuhai's Jiuzhou Port passenger terminal stopped a traveler on the evening of 24 October 2026 and found five sealed cannabis cigarettes, 1.87 g net, in his trouser pocket. The case went to the anti-smuggling department; the traveler's name, nationality and any charge were not published.
Police in Leiyang, Hunan, arrested six people and found 31 cannabis plants growing under halogen lamps in a rented bedroom, in what police called the city's first illegal cannabis cultivation case. Two suspects were sent to compulsory drug rehabilitation, three other drug users were detained, and officers seized 39.44 grams of methamphetamine and 2.2 grams of magu.
