'China's Walter White' Held 'For Selling Drugs'

A Chinese professor has been arrested for allegedly selling drugs worth millions of dollars to clients in the US, Britain, Canada and Australia, Chinese state media reported.

The man, identified only as Zhang, was dubbed by the official Xinhua news agency "China's real-life Walter White" in reference to the chemistry teacher-turned-drug kingpin in the TV series Breaking Bad.

According to the allegations, Zhang sold methylone, a psychoactive drug commonly used as a substitute for MDMA, or ecstasy, over the internet.

He first learned about the popularity of such drugs while teaching as a visiting academic in Australia, Xinhua reported.

He then started a chemical company in 2005 and had staff manufacture "hundreds of kilograms" of methylone.

Last month, police raided Zhang's lab in the city of Wuhan and reportedly found 20kg of drugs. Eight people were arrested then.

Zhang, a professor in an unidentified university in Wuhan, is believed to have made millions of dollars, according to police, though no exact figure was provided.

Between March and November 2014, the business allegedly sold at least 193kg of the substance to the overseas customers.

Last May police said they had arrested a former chemistry professor on suspicion of selling a drug recipe to a gang which cooked up synthetic narcotics.