fentanyl worldwide

9-15-20  there were only three synthetic opioids identified in all of East and Southeast Asia in 2014, the number has now risen to 28.[21]  Unlike China, countries in Southeast Asia lack the forensic capacity to identify these new synthetic substances and precursors, and run the serious risk of being unable to manage the situation as it escalates.  Making matters worse, given East and Southeast Asia’s large and longstanding heroin market, there is also a high probability that organized crime groups like the infamous Sam Gor syndicate[22] will start pushing synthetic opioids into the regional heroin supply in an attempt to lower costs and maximize profits.  http://oxfordpoliticalreview.com/2020/08/15/southeast-asia-has-a-synthetic-drug-problem-china-has-key-stake-in-fixing-it/

…………………………………...................................................…

8-18-20  Mexican marines and customs authorities said Tuesday they seized 250 pounds (113.5 kilograms) of the synthetic opioid fentanyl at the Mexico City airport, the second such large bust there this month.

  Authorities said the fentanyl was found by trained dogs in four small cardboard drums that were part of an air freight shipment.In mid-August, customs authorities seized almost 500 pounds (220 kilograms) of a chemical used to make fentanyl at a cargo terminal at the Mexico City airport.  That shipment came on a flight from Spain, an unusual source for the drug, suggesting Mexican traffickers may be having a harder time getting their hands on fentanyl and precursors from their usual suppliers in Asia.

  In mid-July the government announced the military was taking over control of Mexico’s land and maritime ports of entry to root corruption out of the country’s customs offices.

Mexican traffickers usually perform final chemical steps to make fentanyl, which is many times stronger than heroin. They generally cut it, press it into counterfeit pills and smuggle it into the United States.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/second-large-seizure-of-fentanyl-at-mexico-city-airport/2020/08/18/57aa3a06-e18b-11ea-82d8-5e55d47e90ca_story.html

…………………………………………

8-13-20  Bust of more than 3.5 kilograms of suspected fentanyl, which would equal approximately 35,280 street doses, according to police.  Included submachine gun, meth, crack, ketamine.  Police also announced Christopher Leigh Harmes, 34, of Maple Ridge attended provincial court in Port Coquitlam on July 16.  Harmes has been previously been convicted for drug trafficking offences in 2010, 2012 and 2015.  https://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/35000-doses-of-fentanyl-part-of-huge-maple-ridge-bust/

…………………………………………………..

9-9-20    In June, police in Ontario shut down a huge counterfeiting operation responsible for manufacturing hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills disguised as Oxycocet, including 70 kg of fentanyl powder (enough for 35 million pills).  Police across Canada shut down 20 fentanyl labs between April 2013 and April 2016. They continue to do so, but just like here in the U.S., that hasn’t put brakes on the problem.  https://www.safemedicines.org/2020/09/1-thousand-fake-pills.html

………………………………………………………………………..

2019 told a different story: 10.5 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the northern border alone that year, or enough to kill 1.5 million people….On Michigan data shows, the number of fentanyl seizures by CBP has skyrocketed from 70 pounds in 2015 to 2,545 pounds.  https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/01/29/fentanyl-detroit-canada-border-2019/4590520002/

………………………………………………………

4-13-19    Firstly, fentanyl is produced by various Chinese companies for legal for health sector customers, so the know-how and means for fentanyl production is already present in China. Not that creating fentanyl is very difficult, as easily sourced lab equipment and a basic understanding of chemistry are all that is required to begin manufacturing the drug. The outsourcing of pharmaceutical production to China has also increased the number of companies working in that sector, creating a very crowded pharmaceutical market. The Chinese drug market is extremely fractured, with some 5,000 companies producing $100 billion worth of pharmaceuticals per year. The vast majority of these small companies are not world leading innovators, focusing instead on generic medicines and other low-cost drugs.

  Fentanyl was responsible for 72% of drug-related deaths in Canada, 2017.  The problem today is that the growth of international supply chains, logistics networks, and the rise of the Internet and e-commerce have drastically altered drug distribution channels.  through the use of fake business and email addresses (one of Zhang’s was Canada.pharma.labs@gmail.com) and third-party sales agents, Chinese fentanyl producers can easily bring their product to market, which can be purchased via Google in just a few clicks….

  The tiny amounts of fentanyl needed to reap an eye watering profit makes the drug very easy to conceal and smuggle into Canada. Current anti-drug infrastructure is not set up to handle such an easily concealable narcotic; current U.S and Canadian law enforcement tactics are designed to intercept trucks with tons of cocaine or cannabis, not individuals with grams.

  It should be noted that alongside Chinese drug smugglers, the idiosyncrasies of Canadian law are also helping fuel the opioid crisis. For instance, dark web sellers almost always list Canada Post as the standard shipping option, with buyers preferring to use Canada Post over expensive personal couriers. “Sending through Canada Post can never be a 100 percent sure-fire way to beat the cops, but it works 99.999999 percent of the time,” one anonymous London, Ontario drug user explained to Macleans. This preference for Canada Post is due to the restrictions on mail searching imposed on the crown corporation.

  Even with reasonable cause, police cannot receive a warrant to seize mail when it is in transit, which includes when it is in mailboxes or at Canada Post offices. Bizarrely, these restrictions only apply to Canada Post, as police have the power to search packages shipped by private companies such as FedEx and UPS, hence the preference among drug dealers for the services of Canada Post. Such is the confidence of smugglers that many online fentanyl suppliers offer guaranteed re-shipment to Canada if packages are intercepted: in 2018, Canadian police intercepted enough fentanyl to kill seven million Canadians.  https://truenorthfareast.com/news/fentanyl-china-canada-imports

…………………………………………..............................................

 Ontario, Canada, 8-5-20   More than 35 kg of cocaine, 5 kg of fentanyl, heroin, opium and 30 kg of an unidentified white powder were seized following a total of 16 search warrants carried out in the GTA and surrounding areas. 

  The CFSEU also seized more than $200,000 in cash, 275 cartons of illegal cigarettes and 3 vehicles modified with hidden compartments as offence-related property. 

  An in-depth investigation established that the importation, exportation, and distribution of the illicit drugs were being led by several individuals who have been identified and charged with numerous drug-related offences.

  Charged are:  John Palumbo, 61, of Vaughan; Kristoffer Risley, 42, of Richmond Hill; Steven Uth, 32, and Hua Thao Tran, 27, of Bradford West Gwillimbury; Ravi Shanker, 58, and Sukhsimrat Pawer, 39, of Brampton; Harvinder Singh, 42, and Satinderjit Singh.

https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/10132018-16-people-charged-in-gta-bust-of-organized-crime-drugs-operation/ Khaira, 48, of Cambridge; Phung David Nguyen, 33, Cuy Ceen, 47, Anh Le, 33, Singh Ngo, 60, and Thi Anh Nguyen, 59, of Toronto; Brian Brum, 40, of Georgetown; and Hieu Thien Cao, 38, and Thi Queen Vu, 35, of Guelph.  https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/10132018-16-people-charged-in-gta-bust-of-organized-crime-drugs-operation/

……………………………………………………………

One of Africa’s biggest-ever drug seizures took place on September 1st at a modest bungalow outside the town of Canchungo in Guinea-Bissau.  Hidden behind a fake wall, Bissau-Guinean judicial police found 1,660kg of cocaine—enough to cut 100m lines.  At two other houses nearby, they found a further 250kg of drugs.  They arrested a dozen people, including three Colombians and a Mexican, and nabbed 18 cars and a speedboat.  The drugs were destined for Mali and ultimately, Europe.

  The seizure was the second big one this year in Guinea-Bissau. In March police got their hands on almost 800kg. Before that, they had reported no drugs hauls to the un Office on Drugs and Crime for over a decade.  For most observers the surprise was not that a big shipment of drugs was passing through the country, but that the police stopped it.  In Guinea-Bissau, a small, poor west African state of just 1.9m people, where over 90% of formal exports are cashew nuts, cocaine-smuggling has been a huge business since at least 2005.  UN officials warned more than a decade ago that the country risked becoming a “narco-state”.  The drugs trade has only become more embedded since then.  https://www.economist.com/international/2019/11/21/the-global-drugs-trade-shifts-to-west-africa

……………....................................................…

  Italian police have seized 14 tonnes of amphetamine pills, allegedly produced in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group to fund "terrorist" activities and destined for Europe's illegal drug market.  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/italy-seizes-isil-drugs-syria-worth-1bn-200701105710121.html

…………………………………….......................................……

6-19-20    111 pounds fentanyl seized by Customs at Arizona from 43 yeae old woman.    https://border-security-report.com/port-of-san-luis-cbp-officers-make-large-fentanyl-bust/

…………………………….................................................

Police published footage of the clandestine lab on a four-hectare farm in the city of Serpukhov 100 kilometers south of Moscow.   Police seized more than 100 kilograms of crystals, 1.5 metric tons of liquids, four tons of reagents, more than 600 kilograms of precursors and seven chemical reactors and other equipment.

  Volk added that three chemical engineers of Ukrainian origin, a mule and the suspected organizer were detained.  They each face up to 20 years on charges of drug manufacturing and distribution.

  Authorities also disbanded four retail distribution networks and cut off 18 deliveries to northwestern Russia, Siberia and the Far East, she said.

Initial reports and video of the Serpukhov industrial drug lab appeared on anonymous social media channels Friday.

  Last Wednesday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said it seized 440 kilograms of hashish, MDMA and mephedrone from mules working for one of Russia’s largest darknet drug markets.     https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/19/russias-largest-drug-lab-busted-a68229  

…………………………………..................................................…….

1-6-20    Supply was close at hand.  Estonia is just 99 miles from St Petersburg, Russia’s northern capital, where fentanyl labs were detected in the 1990s.  Similar drug labs were later found in Estonia, near the Russian border.  Producing and distributing fentanyl, marketed to users as “china white,” became an easy and lucrative piece of business for Russian-speaking Estonian organized crime groups, who were already linked in to Estonia’s large Russian-speaking population of drug users.  From 2003 onwards, fentanyl use snowballed and so did fatal drug overdoses and new cases of HIV.  https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/k7ea93/estonia-fentanyl-crisis-what-says-about-us