War on drugs hits screens

Speaking about how the raids unfolded in 2013, a police officer who participated in the campaign says: "The drug dealers were very vigilant about not allowing any strangers onto their turf. So, when we drove into the village, we were immediately followed and then chased by locals. My colleague even got hurt.

"And when we broke into a gang member's home, we found many explosives there."

Chinese narcotics agents typically remain anonymous for their own safety.

And the officer who took part in the raids says that he has only been to his daughter's junior high school twice to pick her up.

"Sometimes I feel bitter as my wife cannot even post any of my pictures on her social network," he says. "But I have a job to do."

One feature of the series is its fast pace and the multiple storylines that are intertwined in the drama, but Dai says that this was not done deliberately to make the story more complicated.

"This was the reality," she says.

"A successful campaign needs close cooperation between different departments. There is no one hero handling all the problems in cases like these. We have a group of heroes."

Real-life stories of narcotics agents have been reaching our screens more often in recent years, and some of them enjoyed huge success like Operation Mekong in 2016.