On April 7, Shanghai Customs announced a shoe sole-hidden drug smuggling case. On March 19, an inward foreign passenger was found entering via Shanghai Pudong International Airport with two packets of white powder hidden in his shoe soles. Later the powder, totaling over 680 grams, was identified to be heroin.

Around 18:00 that day, a male foreign passenger chose to pass the nothing-to-declare channel. His luggage was normal through the X-ray machine. But the soles of his shoes were rayed as shadows. Subsequently, customs officers inspected his shoes and seized two packets of white powder wrapped in black plastic bags from within the soles.

The Customs then transferred the white powder to Shanghai Drug Testing Center and the powder was identified as heroin, weighing 689.07 grams and with a heroin content of 45.20%. On that day, the customs anti-smuggling department legally detained the suspect for further investigation.

In recent years, there has been various ways for smugglers to hide drugs, who frequently use household items like wine bottles, plastic medicine bottles, shoes, batteries and bags as drug carriers. Since this year, Shanghai Customs has successively cracked 3 drug-smuggling cases, seizing 1.15kg cocaine and 1.09kg heroin.