According to the report, Du was stopped by the national security police who found a bottle of gallium in his carry-on luggage. The MSS said it then determined that Du had been carrying the bottle on behalf of an employee of a Chinese metal company, surnamed Tang, and Du had no idea that the material was a controlled substance.
Tang, a Chinese citizen, later confessed that another foreign national, surnamed Fan, had told him he could earn a large sum of money if he bought gallium in China and smuggled it out of the country.
Tang, aware that gallium was a restricted material in China, asked Du to transport the substance out of China and hand it over to Fan, according to the spy agency.
While Du was released with a warning, Tang and his company were “held accountable by law”, the ministry said, without providing further details.
