It was after villagers raised the alarm that four wild elephants were walking around the forest and could pose a threat to the residents that the police went to the scene and made a strange discovery.
One of the elephants started sniffing the grass and then threw a backpack out of a bush. When the police examined the backpack, they found 2.8 kilos of opium, a narcotic-classified substance that is used, among other things, to produce heroin.
By Tuesday morning, a clip of the elephant had gone viral – with over 200 million views on the media platform Weibo, China’s equivalent of X, formerly Twitter.
Some users called the elephant a “secret agent”. Others called for more protection for the Asian elephant, which is an endangered species.
An investigation has been launched after the incident, the police say.
In Yunnan Province, which borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, the widespread drug trade has long been a major problem for the authorities.
Earlier this year, authorities in Chongqing, southwest China, revealed that they have trained red squirrels, known for their exceptional sense of smell, to detect drugs in hard-to-reach areas.