Demystifying the "business experience" of laughing gas
For Ning Zhong, a "addict" born in 1998, those small steel bottles with big thumbs can not only help him "enjoy", but also bring him a steady stream of income.
The small cylinder contains laughing gas. In recent years, laughing gas has appeared in bars, KTVs and other entertainment venues in some areas of the country, and it has been used as a drug substitute by some drug users.
Nitrous oxide, the scientific name of nitrous oxide, is a colorless and sweet gas. It is often used to make DIY cake decorating and fancy coffee. It is also a medical anesthetic with a slight anesthetic effect.
Laughing gas does not make people laugh, but makes the facial muscles lose control, forming a strange demented smile, so it is called laughing gas.
The "Entrepreneurship" Road of "Addicts"
Since September last year, Ning Zhong has purchased large bottles of canned nitrous oxide and filling equipment from Anhui, Shandong and other places, and rented a house for processing and filling in a village in Sihong County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province.
He sells through social networking software such as WeChat, QQ, Tieba, etc., and uses delivery methods such as "Meituan errand", "Didi Chuxing", "Dada" and "Huo Lala" to covertly deliver.
Ning Zhong had never expected the huge market for laughing gas.
After more than two months, he had to consider expanding the scale of production and operation.
Later, he wooed Deng Bing, who was two years older than him, and several relatives to join him.
The original small workshops have also become more and more "professional": they hire and manage workers to fill, refill, and pack small cylinders of laughing gas.
And Deng Bing and others continue to sell on the Internet.
"Workers put the filled small steel bottles into small boxes. Each small box contains 20 small steel bottles, and 12 small boxes can also be packed into a big box." Deng Bing said when questioned by the police.
According to the case handling personnel, in order to avoid people's eyes and ears, they also package the laughing gas into packages of well-known e-commerce companies.
Seeing that the business is getting bigger and bigger, Deng Bing still feels insecure in his heart.
Before he produced and sold laughing gas, he consulted professionals on the Internet about how to avoid the attack by the public security organs.
The so-called professionals told him that as long as they have applied for the relevant business licenses, their actions can be "hidden."
In 2015, laughing gas was included in the Hazardous Chemicals Catalog by 10 departments including the former State Administration of Work Safety, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security.
According to the regulations on the safety management of hazardous chemicals, the state implements a licensing system for hazardous chemical operations (including storage operations).
Without permission, no unit or individual may deal in hazardous chemicals.
In reality, applying for a "hazardous chemicals business license" requires various complex and strict requirements.
Selling laughing gas "Dark Network"
According to Peng Jie, captain of the Anti-drug Brigade of the Jingkou Branch of the Public Security Bureau of Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, at the end of December last year, the police continued to crack down on related illegal activities.
The upstream gas manufacturers required Deng Bing to apply for the "Dangerous Chemicals Business Permit."
In order to evade liability, upstream manufacturers also specifically recommended certification intermediaries.
Xu Qiang spent 25,000 yuan to obtain the relevant business license.
Peng Jie revealed that in order to obtain the license smoothly, the agency assigned the “gunner” to take the form of a substitute test. Through a vocational and technical training school in Shanghai, he obtained the qualification certificates of Deng Bing and Ning Zhong’s safety production knowledge and management ability. The license was obtained in January of this year.
Later, they registered a petrochemical company in Daxie Development Zone, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province.
The company’s industrial and commercial information shows that the company was registered in December last year, and there was a "hazardous chemicals business" in the licensed business scope.
The company's shareholders are Deng Bing, Ning Zhong, and Guo.
The property staff at the company's registered place told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the building has 4 floors and a total of 73 companies, and there is no such petrochemical company.
According to the registered house number, it is actually a trading company.
After starting the company, their "dream of getting rich" began.
After buying a large amount of "laughing gas" from upstream gas factories, they sold it to the first-level offline, weaving a huge sales network.
Although the company has been established, they are still "secondary canning". They have to buy "big cans" from the company that produces laughing gas, and then distribute them into small bottles. The manufacturers then recycle the big cans, forming a complete industrial chain.
In a WeChat group called "Happy Selling in the World", various shouts came and went: "Who can send cans", "Who can send big cans", "Let's talk about the price, add me", "Are there any goods in Guangzhou that can be shipped," Is there in Shaoxing or in Shanghai?"
The China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporters saw in the purchase contract of the Ningbo company that they purchased nitrous oxide from a gas company in Linyi, Shandong. The unit price was 384 yuan per bottle, and 55 bottles were ordered at a time.
Among them, a Ningbo company's letter of undertaking shows that: our company promises that all products will be used for normal business and legal purposes, and that the products must not be used for illegal purposes.
Otherwise, all the consequences and legal responsibilities arising therefrom shall be borne by the purchaser.
In the meantime, Deng Bing's girlfriend also introduced a number of "offline" when he knew that he was selling laughing gas illegally.
For Deng Bing, these "downlines" are similar to the company's sales managers, who specialize in distribution for them, and their numbers are huge. They have become a vital part of the gang.
According to the police report, these "offlines" posted the words "lightning" and "balloon" in the circle of friends of social software such as WeChat and QQ, and claimed that "order on the same day and arrive the next day", implicitly propagating and inducing "addicts" "Buy.
In addition, the criminal gang has a clear structure.
Different levels of "offline" pick up prices are also different.
Like the more advanced "first-level offline", they can be purchased directly from production sites, and the sales volume is very huge.
A large box consisting of 240 small steel cylinders, as a "first-level offline" purchase price, only costs 250 to 300 yuan.
However, if the "second-level offline" takes the goods from the "first-level offline", it will cost 350 to 400 yuan per box.
But whether it is a "first-level offline" or a "second-level offline", they have their own stable source of customers, and what they sell to customers is the "market price."
In reality, the "market price" is regulated by the degree of supply shortage, which basically ranges from 450 to 700 yuan per box.
How to prevent laughter from flowing into the "gray market"
"After arresting the suspect, we began interrogation. During the interrogation, Deng Bing and others were very arrogant, claiming that laughing gas was not a drug, and they had business licenses, and even blatantly provoked. Let our public security organs ask the procuratorate and the court. It’s not enough to deal with them.” Ma Yuanyuan, deputy director of the Jingkou Branch of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau, introduced.
Ma Yuanyuan stated that they obtained licenses through deception and other improper means to produce and sell laughing gas. According to the Administrative Licensing Law, the Administrative Measures for Hazardous Chemicals Business License and other relevant regulations, “the gang’s behavior is suspected of illegal business operations.”
Peng Jie also stated that the "Hazardous Chemicals Business License" clearly marked the corresponding business methods.
Deng Bing applied for the license operation method as "voucher operation".
Therefore, the company can only act as a "middleman" in related product transactions, and cannot directly buy and sell hazardous chemicals.
In addition, the business method is divided into two types: non-warehouse trade and warehouse trade. The former can only buy and sell dangerous chemicals, while the latter has a storage function based on the former.
Peng Jie emphasized that companies that apply for the "Hazardous Chemicals Business Permit" can only engage in the sale of hazardous chemicals in the place of registration and in the form of business on the permit.
Deng Bing registered a company in Ningbo, Zhejiang, but set up his production base in Sihong, Jiangsu, which has seriously violated relevant laws and regulations.
On August 31 this year, Ningbo Emergency Management Bureau of Zhejiang Province also revoked the company’s "Hazardous Chemicals Business Permit" in accordance with the law.
Mr. Zhang, a practitioner in the field of hazardous chemicals in Jiangsu Province who has worked in the field of hazardous chemicals for many years, said that in accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations, the legal and regulatory production of nitrous oxide for food and industrial purposes requires the producer to hold a hazardous chemical business license.
According to Mr. Zhang, there are two main types of operating licenses.
One type is mainly provided to enterprises that purely wholesale hazardous chemicals, and the other type is mainly provided to enterprises that need to carry out storage operations.
Mr. Zhang emphasized that this type of certificate is issued by the manufacturer after the application is approved by the local emergency management bureau.
The mandatory requirement for approval is that the company’s directors and employees must hold a certificate of safety management personnel and a certificate of safety management principal.
"After obtaining the relevant certificate, the relevant staff will conduct a safety inspection on the company's office location. If the company has a warehouse to store hazardous chemicals, the local emergency management bureau will also conduct stricter safety inspections on the warehouse, and the process is more cumbersome. "Mr. Zhang said.
Mr. Zhang revealed that as long as the relevant procedures and certificates are complete, under normal circumstances, relevant companies can obtain the "Hazardous Chemicals Business Permit."
In reality, groups such as "licensing intermediaries" are extremely active, and the relevant market is very prosperous.
"Generally, companies do it for convenience, so they entrust an intermediary to handle it. Of course, there may also be some criminals."
Mr. Zhang suggested that when relevant companies legally and compliantly produce and sell laughing gas for industrial, food and other general purposes, they should carefully check the other party’s hazardous chemical business license and business license, and be vigilant to prevent the influx of hazardous chemicals. "Gray market."
Mr. Zhang said that relevant companies should stop selling hazardous chemicals to individual buyers, and “must sell to legally compliant companies.”
In addition, an invoice must be issued for each sale, and the relevant situation must be recorded in detail, which can ensure that the downstream sales are identified, so that when special circumstances occur, the sales target can be accurately found and the sales process can be accurately monitored.
(The suspects in the text are all pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Li Chao Correspondent Jiang Tianwen Source: China Youth Daily