Australian father goes undercover to track down Chinese dealer who supplied synthetic drugs to dead son

Rod Bridge's 16-year-old son died in 2013 because of the synthetic drugs that he procured from China. Following his son's tragic death, Bridge decided to go undercover and travel to China to infiltrate the drug suppliers and find the ones who supplied synthetic drugs to his son.

To the exporters of narcotics in China, Bridge presented himself as a potential buyer during his meeting with them in the city of Hefei. Bridge discussed the import of drugs to Australia with the drug dealers and was offered five different types of synthetic drugs for import, including 200 kilograms of a single drug alone.

While the drug bosses guaranteed a delivery to Australia within seven days, Bridge made sure that all his meetings are recorded on camera. For this undercover mission, Bridge was accompanied by Channel Nine television crew who had hidden recording devices.

While one of the sellers advised Bridge not to worry since they have experience in sending drugs to Australia, the other said that they know how customs work in the country. The dealers even showed how they use sealed bags and fish tank filters to hide drugs during export.

“I hope it [the undercover recording] will save other lives,” said Bridge said, in an interview with The Telegraph.

“We’re on the verge of some sort of tsunami about to happen and these synthetic drugs that are coming in are just going to get bigger and bigger and this has got to stop. Somebody’s got to stop it.”

Bridge is hopeful that the recordings will help the Australian police track down the supply of synthetic drugs in Australia. Bridge's son, Preston, died after he fell from a balcony. Reportedly, Preston had taken 25i-NBOMe, a synthetic LSD-style drug, prior to the fall. He believed that he could actually fly after taking the drug.

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