In an effort to expose the people that could be responsible for his son's death and the growing illegal drug smuggling in Australia, Rod Bridge traveled to China and recorded his secret meetings with the local drug bosses.
In 2013, 16-year-old Preston Bridge had just come from his school ball in a Scarborough hotel in Perth when he later fell off the balcony and died. Investigations then revealed he must have consumed a synthetic drug called 25i-NBOMe, which has a similar effect as LSD. It's believed that he thought he could fly before he plunged to his death.
The supplier, another teen, had been sentenced to a one-year closed supervision. According to court reports, he obtained the drugs from Silk Road website.
If you haven't heard about the site, it's because it's found in the dark web, which means the pages are not indexed by search engines, and you cannot find it unless you know how dip deeper into the Internet. But for those who are selling and buying illegal drugs, it's the best online market to be in.
Rod, however, wanted to get directly to the source, and so, together with Channel Nine News, he traveled to China. His quest led him to Hefei Province where he went undercover and pretended to be an Australian drug lord buying certain supplies.
The local drug bosses were confident: they knew how the customs work, they say, and they can have the products delivered straight to Australia within a week. Rod was also shown more than 4 different types of synthetic drugs, which the drug gang labeled as research chemical to get past prosecution. They even showed how these items are going to be packed to ensure no detection.
Despite the huge risks, Rod believes he has a greater mission--that is, save more lives, especially those of teens.
In the meantime, the Minister of Justice has implemented a "radical overhaul" to prevent the drugs from getting into the streets. These include giving border patrol the power to seize any synthetic drug regardless of their chemical structure.
