A passenger uses car-hailing app in Shanghai. [File Photo: Xinhua]

A driver and retired soldier, surnamed Tian, who provides ride-hailing services in Shanghai managed to help local police nab a suspected drug dealer recently, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

Tian working for China's ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing got an uncommon order to deliver a well-wrapped parcel from a young man who claimed that the thing in the parcel was an iPhone, late at night on September 4.

It drew suspicions from Tian who found the weight of the parcel was too light to contain an iPhone. And the ensuing calls from the young man who kept on questioning the cab's locations added to Tian's suspicions.

"I suspected that there could be drugs or others illegal items in a parcel that was so light but so well-wrapped as I used to be trained in the army and watch lots of films and TV dramas," said Tian.

Tian then called for help from police officers patrolling on the road. The police immediately took the parcel to a nearby police station and found that the thing in the parcel was not an iPhone but actually drugs. Then Tian told the young man through Didi's audio system that his car caught a problem and asked to return the parcel in a residential community near Changshou Road. At last, the young man, a suspected drug dealer, was caught by a police ambush when Tian delivered the parcel back to the man.

The young man is currently in police custody and further investigation is underway.