A Chinese scientist has been found guilty of producing and distributing $600,000 worth of psychoactive drugs every month to the US and Europe. The 46-year-old associate professor, who was only identified by his surname Zhang, is working along three others to produce the narcotics they sell globally.

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Dubbed as China's real-life "Walter White" because of his case's comparison with AMC's hit TV series Breaking Bad, Zhang was found guilty on Tuesday (Dec. 6) for selling 32 kilograms of illicit drugs such as the MDMA-like methylone and the Flakka, or popularly known as the zombie drug, the Time reported. However, authorities believe that the real quantity is at least 10-fold higher than what the suspects confessed.

Zhang and his accomplices reportedly started the illegal business in 2005 and rented an 800-square-meter production plant in a local industrial park to manufacture the illicit substances. Chutian Metropolis Daily noted that Zhang was responsible for changing the drugs' chemical structure based on the client's preference.

They then used Western Union and Bitcoins to facilitate their illegal transactions. The drugs are sold across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, the Newser noted.

The 46-year-old suspect was first arrested in November 2015 after customs discovered the drugs in a package for export and raided his lab. Authorities, on his initial arrest, said Zhang revealed that he found out about the high demand of psychoactive drugs during his academic visit in Australia. He then decided to gain profit by making drugs after he returned to the mainland, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, although Zhang along with his two colleagues admitted that they are indeed smuggling, selling, producing, and distributing the drugs, they argued that all of those were used for research purposes only. So far, no date has been announced for their sentence.

TagsChina drug problems, China's Walter White, Breaking Bad China, Chinese drugs online