Article 1

Why a deluge of Chinese-made drugs is hard to curb

When Sammy left her village in Sichuan province to attend university in northern
China more than a decade ago, she was following a well-trodden rite of passage.
The English language graduate was the first person in her family to go to
university. She had a passion for foreign languages and dreamed of becoming
a teacher. She had never heard of synthetic opioids before.
After graduating, Sammy found work at a chemicals company in the Chinese
city of Shijiazhuang, selling what she thought were chemicals to clients around
the world. She would practice English every day speaking to her customers
online, and earn a commission for each sale she made. Her dreams of
becoming a teacher quickly faded.
"Maybe others are just like me… At the start we don't know what we are
selling, but when we find out we have fallen in love with the work," she said.
"This work can make money," she adds.
Sammy [not her real name] is an unlikely drug trafficker. She is one of what
international law enforcement agencies estimate could be thousands of online
sales representatives, working for illicit Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical
companies producing and smuggling illegal laboratory made drugs.

The US government has long accused China of flooding the country with
deadly drugs like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than
heroin, claims the Chinese government denies. The US says Chinese-made
opioids are fuelling the worst drug crisis in the country's history. In 2022 more
than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses.

According to a report published by the US select committee on the Chinese

Communist Party, the Chinese government provides subsidies to companies
openly trafficking illicit synthetic drugs. The report found tens of thousands of
posts online advertising illegal drugs and pre-cursors.
The study claims that "wholly state owned" companies are involved in the
trafficking of drugs. The Chinese government has consistently denied
knowledge of the illegal drug trade.
Many like Sammy fall into the drug trade seemingly by accident, initially
unaware of the products they are peddling online and their deadly
consequences. But others are more aware of what they are selling.

Each morning Sara [not her real name] posts photos and videos across her
social media platforms advertising drugs; synthetic cannabinoids, precursors
for MDMA, and nitazenes, a synthetic opioid considered up to 50 times more
potent than even fentanyl.
"We have many customers in Britain and have cooperated with them many
times," boasts Sara, an international trade graduate, now working for an online
platform.
When challenged, she is not drawn into a moral discussion about selling drugs.
She claims she never asks customers how they use what she sells.
The UK National Crime and Agency (NCA) believes drug dealers are mixing
the synthetic opioid with street drugs such as heroin.
According to the NCA, there have been more than 100 deaths linked to
nitazenes over the past nine months, leading health professionals to warn the
UK may be facing a drug-related crisis.

The BBC has found hundreds of adverts for nitazenes online. Suppliers
contacted claim to send shipments through courier services, mislabelling
deliveries and hiding drugs in fake packaging. The BBC has also seen courier
tracking numbers provided by online sales representative in China claiming to
have made successful deliveries across the UK.
Sara entered the business after university. She thought she was selling
chemicals. She has worked in the industry for two and a half years. "I know
most of the products," she says.
"My boss has been running this company for more than seven years, and he
knows lots of customers and freight forwarders. If the product is detained, he
will lose the most. So he will try his best to make the product reach you
smoothly," she adds.
In March, the UK government classified 15 synthetic opioids as Class A drugs.
Under the Misuse of Drugs act anyone caught supplying or producing the
drugs could face up to life in prison. Those caught in possession face seven
years.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), China
has between 40,000 and 100,000 pharmaceutical companies.

"China has long had one of the most significant pharmaceutical industries in
Asia, as well as one of the largest chemical industries. And we've seen industry
growth in other countries of the region," said Jeremy Douglas in late 2023, the
then regional representative of the UNODC .
"While both industries are regulated, the challenge is significant given the
sheer scale, and at the same time there are a number of ways to move
products. Parcel post, air freight and shipping containers are all moving
globally in high volumes," he said.
Mr Douglas says that synthetic drugs are disrupting the traditional drug trade.
Outside of China, synthetic drugs offer opportunities for both traditional crime
organisations and upstarts able to buy directly from producers half a world
away.
"Synthetics like fentanyl have several advantages over traditional drugs -
compact, easily shippable, pre-existing demand, replaceable. They're attractive
to traffickers."

That was confirmed in my conversations with sales people working for Chinese
pharmaceutical firms.

"First of all, our packaging is completely secret, no one knows what it is until
you open it, and second, we will change the name of the package and will not
reveal any name about the product," says Sara.

"We will get the logistics order number when we send the package, we will
track the situation of the package at any time, and any anomalies can be
known and solved in time," she adds.

According to Europol, the European police agency, China is the world's biggest
manufacturer and distributor of synthetic, lab-made drugs. Some mimic the
effects of traditional drugs like cannabis or cocaine. Chemists synthesise new
drugs in order to stay one step ahead of the law.
"It is criminal entrepreneurship, but in a legitimate framework which is really
unique," says Dr Louise Shelley the director of the Terrorism, Transnational
Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University, and
author of Dark Commerce.

"I have not seen such a professionalism and a corporate element in this
anywhere else in the world. Criminal activity was a type of social mobility."

In 2020, researchers from TraCCC studied over 350 English language

websites advertising the synthetic opioid fentanyl. "From all the adverts that we
found, nearly 40% of them were from corporate registries, and the largest hub
of that was in Wuhan," says Dr Shelly.

The sales people contacted by the BBC see the drug trade as simply another
aspect of e-commerce. When challenged over selling drugs that damage lives,
one described herself as a "middleman."

"Somebody needs it, somebody makes it, and I am just a middleman who lets
customers know that I have it and what they do with it, I don't care," she says.
"Then I figured out I just need to make money. I don't know and don't care.
Everyone has their own needs."

The woman boasts of clients from Canada to Croatia. She provided photos of
recent drugs shipments complete with labels showing a UK address.

"I didn't know at first until I went online and translated the product into
Chinese," she says via a message punctuated with a teary emoji.

Another seller says: "This industry is easy, and you can get higher wages,
which attracts a large number of young people". Natalie [not her real name],
focuses on fentanyl.

"We buy from over 10 different labs and have a large selection. I have a
professional shipping agent who packaged goods so has a very high delivery
success rate to the UK."

Meanwhile, another supplier claimed to be able to smuggle drugs into the UK

hidden in dog food packaging. "You don't need to worry about the packaging.
We guarantee you safe delivery."
"We ship in large quantities all over the world every day. Please trust our
professional team. We guarantee 100% safe transportation."

In 2019, the Chinese government banned all forms of fentanyl and its
analogues. In January 2024, China and the US launched a joint operation to
curb the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

"As long as market demand remains high in some parts of the world then that
demand will be met in one way or another," said Mr Douglas from the UNODC.
 Article 2

'People will keep dying': Fentanyl crisis grips Mexico's border cities

The scene which greeted Tijuana's paramedics as they entered 'La Perla' bar in
the early hours of the morning was grim.
Two men were unconscious - a heavy-set man sprawled on the floor, his friend
slumped in a chair - both clinging to life by a thread.
Once more, the city's emergency services had been called out following a
suspected fentanyl overdose - increasingly part of every nightshift, says
paramedic Gabriel Valladares.
"It's getting worse. We're seeing more and more, and it's always fentanyl," he
says.
The synthetic opioid is 50 times stronger than heroin and is making the
paramedics' job much harder.

"We generally see two or three overdoses a night. But we've had as many as
six or seven cases in a single call - probably because they all took the same
substance," adds Gabriel.
Some in the team quickly began CPR on the two patients while others
prepared doses of Narcan, the most effective drug to reverse a fentanyl
overdose.
The two men may not have even known they were taking fentanyl. Because
the opioid is cheap and easy to produce and transport, Mexican drug cartels
have begun to cut it into recreational drugs like cocaine.

The Mexican border city finds itself in the grip of a full-blown drug epidemic. But
the country's president, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, has played down the
extent of the problem.

"We don't produce fentanyl here. We don't consume fentanyl here," he said
last year. Following that controversial claim, he has promised to introduce new
legislation to Congress to ban the consumption of fentanyl and other synthetic
opioids.
Those working on Tijuana's frontlines fear that may be too little, too late.
The director of the state's forensic services, Dr César González Vaca, tells me
that for over a year his department has tested every dead body that comes into
their morgues in two border towns, Mexicali and Tijuana, for fentanyl.
The study has shown that around one-in-four bodies in Mexicali contained
fentanyl, he says, and last July, the statistics for Tijuana were as high as one-
in-three.
"It seems the closer we are to the border, the more consumption of this drug
we see", explains Dr González Vaca. "Unfortunately, we can't compare to
other states in the Republic as, in Baja California, we're the first state to carry
out this study," he adds, urging his counterparts around the country to help
build a clearer national picture.

People working with the living in Tijuana also claim the president has
underestimated the scale of the crisis in Mexico.
Prevencasa is a harm reduction centre in the city which provides a needle
exchange and medical services to addicts. Its director, Lily Pacheco, randomly
selects two used needles and two empty drug vials from their disposal unit.
All four items of drug paraphernalia test positive for fentanyl. The city is awash
with it, says Lily.
"Of course fentanyl exists. To suggest otherwise is a lack of recognition of this
reality. We have the evidence right here," she says, pointing at the testing
strips.

"The overdoses we see and all those who've died from fentanyl are part of that
evidence too. Ignoring the problem won't solve it. On the contrary, people will
keep dying."
As our interview ends, there is suddenly a much more visceral illustration of the
crisis than fentanyl tests on used syringes.
Lily is rushed outside where someone is overdosing on the street. She carries
Narcan too, donated by a US charity after her federal funding was cut, and
saves the man's life.
He was lucky. But many were not so fortunate.
The fentanyl epidemic has hit the neighbouring US - the world's biggest market
for illegal drugs - especially hard. There, an estimated 70,000 people died of
overdoses last year.
Elijah Gonzales was one of them.
Just 15 when he accidentally overdosed on a counterfeit Xanax pill from
Mexico, he had no idea it was fentanyl-laced. Text messages Elijah's mother,
Nellie Morales, found afterwards suggest it was his first time experimenting
with drugs.
His body simply couldn't cope.
"I miss him every day," says Nellie in her apartment in El Paso, Texas, adorned
with pictures of her son. "He was going to graduate this June. A piece of me
died that day that he died."

Unfortunately, such deaths are common in the US. More than five Texans die
every day from fentanyl, say state authorities, and in El Paso County alone,
fentanyl was involved in 85% of accidental overdoses like Elijah's.
City police compare the situation to the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
El Paso sits across the border from one of Mexico's most dangerous cities,
Ciudad Juárez. When we visited, US customs officers seized 33kg (73lb) of
fentanyl in a single day, enough to kill everyone in El Paso twice over.
Arguments over the drug have even seen some Republicans advocate for
sending troops into Mexico to fight the cartels. No doubt such debates will
feature highly in the US election campaign. In truth though, given how easily it
can be transported, it is almost impossible to stem the flow of fentanyl into the
US.
In Ciudad Juárez, I meet Kevin - not his real name - a 17-year-old drug
smuggler and hitman for La Empresa cartel. He shows me videos of his gang
moving the drug through tunnels beneath the US-Mexico border.

"A kilo of fentanyl makes the cartel around $200,000 (£160,000) in the US", he
says, "I earn about $1,000 (£800) to take it north."

Kevin has been working with the cartel since he was just nine. But he has
never seen anything like fentanyl. He predicts it is the future of the illegal drug
trade:
"It's the strongest drug I've ever seen, chemically so powerful that people keep
demanding more and more. It's going to keep blowing up," he says.
I asked him if he felt any remorse over the deaths of US teens like Elijah.

"No, it's all part of a chain", he shrugs. "They send guns south, we send
fentanyl north. Everyone's responsible for their own acts."
Back in Tijuana, it took three doses of Narcan, but the paramedics managed to
bring one patient back from the brink in the 'La Perla' bar.
For his friend, though, it was too late. He died amid the beer bottles and empty
glasses on the barroom floor.
The paramedics' dignified silence is pierced by the awful sound of wailing. His
mother has made it to the bar only to be told her son, at 27, is another victim of
this most powerful of narcotics, his death a footnote in an election year on both
sides of the US-Mexico border.
 FILM 1
Fentanyl: Why are so many Americans dying from synthetic opioids? - BBC News

fentanyl is a highly potent opioid. it's at least 50 times more potent than heroin.
People are being exposed to fentanyl without knowing it and because
it's so highly potent people are dying at unprecedented rates. What's happened
in the United States is fentanyl has entered into all these different parts
0:38
of our drug Supply including the heroin
0:41
Supply cocaine for example have
0:43
increasingly been tainted with fentanyl
0:45
pills that are sold on the street that
0:48
might look like regular prescription
0:50
pills are very often fake counterfeit
0:52
pills that have been made with fentanyl
0:54
in them
0:55
someone experiencing an overdose will
0:58
have this decrease in breathing might
0:59
lose Consciousness might start to turn
1:02
blue or pale and within a few minutes
1:04
can die
1:15
foreign
1:28
is sprayed up the nose which is very
1:31
easy for people to administer it's safe
1:34
it's effective there's virtually no
1:36
downside to doing so it's a critical
1:38
tool that I encourage everybody to carry
1:40
with them to have in their homes so that
1:42
they can act quickly if they need to
1:44
from 2019 to 2021 overdose deaths among
1:48
10 to 19 year olds in the United States
1:51
more than double in Pediatrics we're not
1:53
used to our young healthy patients
1:57
suddenly dying from things like
1:59
overdoses but it's increasingly become a
2:01
reality for so many of us who practice
2:03
right now I have had patients die I've
2:05
had patients whose family members have
2:07
died and all of these people are
2:09
children brothers sisters moms dads
2:12
family members and they're all loved and
2:15
these deaths are often unexpected and
2:17
tragic
 FILM 2

Fentanyl: The million dollar streets

strewn with bodies contorted by the
effects of the drug
it's a normal afternoon on the doorstep
0:02
of San Francisco's main government
0:04
building a snapshot of America's
0:07
fentanyl crisis
0:09
it doesn't just look Stark
0:12
an average of one person every 10 hours
0:14
dies in this city of a fentanyl overdose
0:19
it's often here in the drug ravaged
0:21
tenderloin District
0:23
are you a fentanyl user absolutely I've
0:26
been in here I've been an opiate addict
0:28
for probably 10 years Trevor used to
0:31
inject heroin but fentanyl he says is a
0:34
different beast and he wants everyone to
0:36
know I mean the fact that this isn't a
0:38
main issue I mean on TV every night is
0:41
insane to us I've never seen anything
0:42
like it I meet regular people Square
0:45
Joe's on their way to work and they'll
0:47
stop hang out with me and try this drug
0:48
for the first time and then leave their
0:50
life literally not not leave from that
0:52
moment on they're just out here with us
0:54
is that what fentanyl does to some
0:56
people it's insane I've never seen
0:57
anything like it no one has what's it
0:58
doing to the streets
1:01
is turning everybody into you know a
1:04
crazy violent drug addict we're doing an
1:07
interview I know but do that somewhere
1:08
else y'all smoking crack right here
1:10
daycare right there we're interrupted by
1:12
Private Security asking them to move out
1:15
of the view of the nursery
1:18
this is a city divided on how to deal
1:21
with the scourge of drugs
1:23
some want the streets swept others
1:26
prefer a more compassionate health-based
1:28
approach
1:29
no one wants to end up with a
1:31
manslaughter charge because someone dies
1:33
from their product Jeff is a former drug
1:35
dealer and says testing is the answer
1:38
two stripes would be a negative result
1:41
one one trade would be a positive result
1:44
yep so there's a second line showing up
1:47
right now simple strip tests are now
1:50
being used by dealers and users to check
1:52
for fentanyl it sometimes contaminates
1:55
Other Drug supplies Like Cocaine I know
1:58
you work with one of the largest Mexican
2:00
street gangs helping test their cocaine
2:03
to make sure it doesn't have fentanyl or
2:06
traces of fence on it how how does that
2:08
work yeah
2:10
customers start to notice that people
2:12
are dying from a batch of cocaine and
2:16
that the autopsy results are showing
2:19
that it's because of an opioid overdose
2:21
no one's buying that cocaine anymore I
2:24
mean it just doesn't make Financial
2:26
sense to kill your customer base
2:29
across town beside a homeless encampment
2:32
a charity has set up
2:35
they hand out clean syringes and
2:38
overdose reversal treatments how has
2:41
fentanyl transformed your home people
2:44
are dying a lot more people are dying
2:46
and and it's in a lot of the drug Supply
2:50
and people are doing it without knowing
2:52
they're doing it and it's it's made
2:55
substance use
2:58
um
2:59
horrifyingly
3:01
deadly
3:03
it's difficult to believe at times that
3:05
this is one of America's great historic
3:08
cities home to more billionaires than
3:10
anywhere on Earth
3:12
this is two streets from the
3:14
headquarters of Twitter but it's an
3:16
open-air drug Market it is a tragedy
3:19
with no easy resolution