1,000 gallons of methyl fentany

6-10-20    There were roughly

1,000 gallons of methyl fentanyl, which is several times stronger than regular fentanyl, and 17.5 tons of meth captured in a giant raid in northeast Myanmar….

  So they will invite outside “investors” — inevitably Chinese mafia, Khuensai says — to come and build the labs. The mafia imports the chemists, operates the refinery and traffics the drugs to wealthier countries such as Australia, US or Japan….

  It’s unlikely the methyl fentanyl was synthesized in Myanmar. The seized lab equipment was suited to cooking meth, not fentanyl.  That means it was likely smuggled over from a factory in China, which has more chemical-producing factories than anywhere on Earth.  https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-06-10/massive-asian-drug-bust-has-stirred-fentanyl-mystery

............................................

 5-18-20   Also seized were almost 163,000 litres and 35.5 tonnes of drug precursors, as well as weapons.  There were more than 130 arrests....Fentanyl and its derivatives have caused more than 130,000 overdose deaths in the United States and Canada in the past five years, according to government agencies.

  While Myanmar police did not disclose the purity and exact make-up of the methylfentanyl found, it comes in two main variants, both more potent than fentanyl, according to the European Union’s drug monitoring agency.  

   “Upon interrogation, the offenders revealed most of the drugs would be distributed inside Myanmar and distributed around neighbouring countries,” he said.   “But we are still conducting interrogations. We haven’t totally got the final destinations yet.”

  “The alliances between Myanmar’s ethnic militias and transnational crime groups must be broken or the synthetic drug problem will continue to deteriorate,” said the UNODC’s Douglas.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-drugs-exclusive-idUSKBN22U0Q8

5-20-20   Half of all heroin and cocaine overdoses in the United States included substances with traces of synthetic opioids in 2017, a Rand Corporation analysis found.  A Canadian survey found 73% of those who tested positive for fentanyl did not know they had consumed it.  https://www.informedamerican.com/exclusive-huge-fentanyl-haul/

.............................................