Chapter 1132

Yuan Bomin's brows were tightly furrowed. He wanted to say something, then stopped, and said: "Our existing clues were basically exhausted by the time we reached Red Face. Arresting Red Face was already a matter of coincidence..."

Yuan Bomin introduced as much as he could: "Red Face distributed goods by car. And before he distributed goods, he would privately confirm the situation of these small dealers, then drive to the small dealer's side, use a disposable phone to call the small dealer below. Once connected, he'd set a place and say how long it would take to arrive, and he had to arrive in exactly that amount of time."

Once Liu Liu Jinghui heard this, he immediately realized the difficulty involved and said: "Then as long as he keeps an eye on the small dealers in advance and confirms there are no problems, he'll make the call. Then he sets the meeting at a place without cameras, and basically, he won't be exposed. In that case, how did you manage to arrest him?"

"We had just arrested Long Sword and were still interrogating him when Red Face's phone call came in. It was a perfect time difference; we happened to have people at the agreed-upon location. We went over and found Red Face, then tracked him the whole way. We originally hoped to catch a few more fish, but Red Face didn't see Long Sword, didn't even return to his own hideout, and was about to leave the city. We blocked him at the highway exit. If we had hesitated even a little, he would have left the city, and then it would have been very hard to find him." Yuan Bomin spoke with lingering fear.

Liu Liu Jinghui could visualize the scene in his mind and couldn't help but say: "Drug dealers have money and are ruthless; that's the hardest part about catching them."

"Indeed, you are absolutely right!" Yuan Bomin felt deeply the same way, and his emotions were on the verge of venting.

Wealthy criminals are very difficult to catch because using money to pave the way allows them to obtain many conveniences. Just in terms of transportation, with high-speed rail and airplanes strictly restricted, poor criminals can only take buses or crawl onto slow trains; those slightly better off carpool or rent cars, which is still very unsafe. But if they have money, buying a car registered under someone else's name to drive reduces the risk of exposure significantly.

However, cars registered under someone else's name with unknown origins basically all have GPS, and every place has professional teams looking for cars, searching everywhere for such vehicles. So, if they are on the run, buying such a car is a one-time thing, costing anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan—it belongs to the high-end business class of the criminal field.

As for staying in hotels, eating, delivering goods, and even medical treatment and satisfying sexual needs, wealthy criminals and poor criminals are in two different worlds. One could even say that poor criminals are the wealth of wealthy criminals; it's realism in the real world.

Yuan Bomin appeared a bit anxious and said: "Otherwise... otherwise..."

He wanted to propose a second solution, but since it concerned the life and death of the undercover agent, Yuan Bomin really couldn't say anything else.

Jiang Yuan took over the conversation at this point and said: "Then let's start from the beginning."

"Start from the beginning... how?" Yuan Bomin was a bit anxious.

Jiang Yuan said: "I'm not very familiar with narcotics control, but they are basically a tree-like structure, right? Drug addicts buy from small drug dealers, above the small drug dealers are small distributors like Long Sword, then large distributors like Red Face, and then even larger ones above them? Your undercover agent is currently at the side of Red Face's superior?"

"Something like that. However, people like Long Sword and Red Face don't even count as distributors. Red Face's supplier, 'Brother Li Four,' is the only one who counts as a small distributor. In Hong Kong and Taiwan slang, small distributors are called 'splitters.' They have the ability to receive high-purity drugs in bulk, then add things to them in their own drug kitchens to increase profits. Above small distributors, there might be large distributors, depending on who is above them. But once you reach the distributor level, it's very hard to catch them; transactions are often contactless." Yuan Bomin spoke about drugs with great expertise.

Although it didn't count as a lead, Yuan Bomin still hoped Jiang Yuan could understand more, so as not to just talk about impractical things, and continued: "Above the distributors, it's usually the drug manufacturing factories. Those abroad come through smuggling, and some have several levels of distributors in between. Domestic drug manufacturing factories hit and run; because the domestic industrial product range is complete and chemical machinery is easy to get, a few people can start a small workshop. With skilled operations, they can produce several thousand kilograms of product in a few weeks."

Liu Liu Jinghui said: "In 'Breaking Bad,' Heisenberg could produce a batch in a week, and each time they would assemble it in a different villa, produce it, and then leave."

Yuan Bomin: "Something like that, depending on what variety they're producing. In 'Breaking Bad,' it was ice. Domestically... there are too many chemicals that can be used as drugs now. Buying many precursor chemicals isn't difficult; it mainly relies on the registration and filing system, but this thing... drug dealers can always find loopholes..."

"Understood. So, our goal is to find the drug manufacturing factory, as well as the undercover agent, right?" Jiang Yuan began trying to organize his thoughts.

"No... the drug manufacturing factory can't be found... no, I mean, through this bottom-up investigation, it's generally very hard to determine the drug manufacturing factory." Yuan Bomin said anxiously for a moment before softening his tone slightly: "To find drug manufacturing factories, we generally adopt other methods, such as quantitative analysis of chemicals... In short, our primary goal is to find the undercover agent first!"

Liu Liu Jinghui explained half-heartedly: "Finding the drug manufacturing factory doesn't necessarily mean finding the undercover agent; the two are separate."

"Very likely. The people in the drug manufacturing factory, especially domestically, don't necessarily have high status; they are often just a makeshift team of a few people. Drug addicts aren't that picky either; low purity, impurities, and such aren't that important to them, otherwise, they'd die too fast." Yuan Bomin smiled rarely when he reached this point and said: "The Jianyuan Group you guys took down was a rare, true drug manufacturing factory in the country. When Jianyuan collapsed, the price of related products rose from a few hundred yuan per gram to as high as 60,000 yuan."

"60,000 per gram?" Liu Liu Jinghui hadn't noticed that aspect of the situation.

Yuan Bomin nodded solemnly: "Addicts who need to use it, always need to use it. Especially with a drug manufacturing factory as large as Jianyuan collapsing, the gap was too big. The price of tens of thousands of yuan was actually inducing drug addicts with stock to let some goods out; they were already in a state of being desperate for anything."

Speaking of the Jianyuan Group, the way Yuan Bomin looked at Jiang Yuan began to change.

Anyone who has arrested drug dealers knows how thick the firewalls around these drug lords are and how wide the firebreaks they've built are. And Jiang Yuan's destruction of the Jianyuan Group wasn't smooth sailing either; not only did he clash with the Jianyuan Group multiple times during that period, but he himself was also nearly killed by a dump truck.

If Jiang Yuan hadn't already established a considerable reputation at the time and received the full support of the police force, the subsequent situation would have been hard to say.

Moreover, this wasn't Jiang Yuan's first time destroying a drug group. The "Crystal Cruise," which frequently appeared in narcotics intelligence, was destroyed in the name of the "Drug Capture Net" precisely because of Jiang Yuan's investigation while in Sushan.

Thinking of this, Yuan Bomin felt a bit ashamed.

Whether it was Jianyuan or the "Crystal Cruise," both were true drug groups of immense scale, while the drug gangs he investigated on a daily basis, although also extremely brutal and highly dangerous, were much smaller in scale and difficulty of investigation.

Nowadays, the country takes down nearly 10,000 drug gangs a year; those that can truly be called drug groups are very rare.

In the time Yuan Bomin was thinking about this and that, Jiang Yuan had also finished reading the case files he had brought with him.

After handing the remaining documents to Liu Liu Jinghui, Jiang Yuan said: "Team Yuan, what I meant by starting from the beginning is that since the clues from the Narcotics Control Detachment are insufficient, we should start from scratch and re-investigate, without needing to be constrained by Long Sword and Red Face."

"Please explain in detail; I didn't quite understand." Yuan Bomin handed Jiang Yuan a cigarette and lit it with a snap.

Snap, snap, snap, snap.

With this start, the criminal police present lit up their cigarettes one after another. As for a healthy life, after being a criminal police officer for a long time, one feels that just staying alive is already not easy.

Jiang Yuan puffed on the cigarette to put on a show and said: "Let's talk to each other. I don't know if I understand correctly, but Long Sword, Red Face, and the superior of Red Face we are looking for are all selling in fixed areas, right?"

"Basically, yes. At their level, crossing regions is very difficult. The more grassroots the drug dealing, the more familiar they need to be with the local area." Yuan Bomin flicked the cigarette ash and said: "Without a local advantage, a new face would be driven out by us in a few days."

"Then I think, isn't finding the drug manufacturing factory easier than finding Brother Li Four alone?" Jiang Yuan asked a question that hit the soul, but to Yuan Bomin, it sounded extremely foolish.

Yuan Bomin was even a bit anxious and said: "The drug manufacturing factory doesn't need to come out; it just needs to produce. There are very few flaws. How can you find it by looking directly? I know what you mean—you want to find it through physical and chemical analysis, right? But to be honest, this method assumes the factory doesn't move or has a fixed location for discharging wastewater. The first batch of drug gangs to suffer were just arrested, and other gangs have become cautious."

Yuan Bomin specifically said: "Factories nowadays hit and run. They save up enough chemicals for drug manufacturing at once, quietly transport them to a certain place, a few people hide inside and work away, produce everything in one go, or even change locations mid-production, and finally change locations again for sales. So, even if we want to find the factory now, it's very likely we won't be able to, because the factory has already stopped production."

"But you said earlier that Long Sword and Red Face are expanding their market. This means this factory is new, either having a large amount of stock or currently expanding production, right?" Jiang Yuan's one sentence stumped Yuan Bomin.

Yuan Bomin had to nod and then said: "Even so, if the factory has already finished production, it no longer exists..."

"What I mean is, discovering the local drug network is easier than finding one specific person." Jiang Yuan corrected himself slightly.

Yuan Bomin opened his mouth. He really wanted to say he didn't think so, but looking at Jiang Yuan in front of him, he really couldn't say anything to refute him—the man had truly destroyed drug networks.

Jiang Yuan continued: "Since this drug gang has already started distributing, they won't just stop, right?"

"That's for sure. Those who sell drugs are dancing on the edge of a knife. If they see an undercover agent, they'll kill them directly; sales won't stop." Once Yuan Bomin said this, he began puffing on his cigarette frantically.

Huang Huang Qiangmin hurriedly comforted him from the side and handed him a bottle of water.

Yuan Bomin gulped it down.

Dai Mingsheng looked at Huang Huang Qiangmin from the side, thinking to himself that a great villain is indeed best at small favors.

Jiang Yuan was silent for a few seconds, simultaneously checking his skill list, and after thinking for a while, said to Yuan Bomin: "I know you are very anxious, but as far as my ability goes, just wanting to find Brother Li Four doesn't necessarily mean there will be results quickly... or rather, what you need me to provide should also be capabilities outside the Narcotics Control Detachment, right?"

Yuan Bomin nodded slowly: "Yes, we have already tried every possible way to find him."

"Do you have photos or videos of Brother Li Four or the people around him?"

"How could we have that? If we did, facial recognition would have already caught him."

"Fingerprints or footprints or something like that, you shouldn't have those either, right?"

"None." Yuan Bomin answered decisively.

"Then can you lure him out now? Have you tried?"

"We've tried. In the last few days, Brother Li Four has completely disappeared."

"Since that's the case, I'll propose a clumsy method, which is also a slow method." Jiang Yuan looked at Huang Huang Qiangmin, then at Yuan Bomin, and at Dai Mingsheng who was accompanying them.

Yuan Bomin became inexplicably nervous: "Please tell me."

Jiang Yuan thought for a moment and said: "I suggest re-deploying a surveillance network in parts of Lanyue City, focusing on Brother Li Four's sales area, and adding new cameras. I am personally skilled in technical defense surveillance technology, and I am also skilled in trajectory analysis in image investigation. We can deploy a surveillance area at the fastest speed. If we work day and night, three days at most will be enough."

Yuan Bomin looked at Jiang Yuan in confusion: "This isn't a matter of surveillance. Don't even mention that drug dealers will hide from surveillance; when we build surveillance with great fanfare, they definitely won't come over."

"That's because the normal surveillance approach is position control, aiming for universal surveillance. I can specifically do surveillance for monitoring drug dealers, deploying them at some important nodes. The key is, we can choose the long lenses we need, and we can even temporarily deploy some cameras in mid-air..." As Jiang Yuan spoke, he began drawing on paper.

Several streets, several nodes—it made Yuan Bomin dizzy, but the hope that welled up in his heart could no longer be suppressed, and he asked instinctively: "Will this work?"

Jiang Yuan waved his hand: "During the time we re-deploy the cameras, the Narcotics Control Detachment should identify as many of these small drug addicts as possible. Later, we'll try to find a portion of them in the video, and through their links, see if we can find a few small drug dealers at the Long Sword level. If we can then link to a drug dealer at the Red Face level, the progress will be parallel to yours."

Yuan Bomin hesitated: "Our domestic drug dealers don't really trade on the streets. If they hide indoors or in the wild... even so, when they trade, they often wear masks and sunglasses..."

"That has nothing to do with it." Jiang Yuan shook his head: "My method of identifying people is different from yours; I generally just look at their gait."

Yuan Bomin's eyes lit up.

Jiang Yuan looked at Dai Mingsheng next to him and said: "Detachment Leader Dai, has our application for credit for meritorious service come down yet? I mean, I won't attend the award ceremony this time; can you just bring the medals and such directly to me?"

Dai Mingsheng thought Jiang Yuan wanted to save time to handle the case and said with emotion: "No problem. Actually, the award ceremony can be postponed. When you're done here, or whenever you choose a time, we can hold it then. The police officers of the Lanyue City Bureau all want to see you."

"Too busy. There's tomorrow's work tomorrow; just issue the medals to me directly." Jiang Yuan felt that LV3 technical defense surveillance technology was still not foolproof, and he still had one first-class merit reward left in his hand, which he could use first, but subsequent supplements also needed to be fast, so as not to encounter new needs in the future.

Dai Mingsheng naturally agreed readily.

Jiang Yuan turned to Yuan Bomin and said: "Detachment Leader Yuan, then let's get moving according to this plan. It just so happens that Xu Chu Xu Taining is also here. Once we identify a portion of the drug dealers, we'll transfer them directly to Xu Chu to cast the net; the success rate will be maximized."

"No problem!" Yuan Bomin naturally agreed readily.

Dai Mingsheng looked at Yuan Bomin's naive appearance, not knowing whether he should remind him or not.