A Chinese restaurant owner has reportedly confessed to coating food with the powdered poppy seeds used to make opium.

Opium is regarded as a highly addictive narcotic that leaves heavy users with painful withdrawal systems if they’re forced to go without the drug.

A restaurant owner in China has reportedly confessed to coating food with the powdered poppy seeds used to make opium. The reason he added the addictive ingredient to the dishes is so the customers would keep coming back for more.

According to the owner of the noodle shop, he purchased around 4.4 pounds of poppy buds in August. From there, he says he ground the seeds into a powder.

Police realized what was going on when one of the restaurant’s customers was pulled over not long after consuming the noodles. The patron was tested for drugs.

The results came back positive for opium, so the man was detained for 15 days. He was released after his family members, who had also eaten the noodles, came forward and tested positive for the drug.

At that point, an investigation was launched and it led right to the restaurant owner. Police have since spoken out, saying that if the contaminated food was ingested over an extended period of time, it could have led to a dependence on the drug.