Sammy followed a rite of passage when he left his hometown in the Sichuan province to attend a university in northern China more than ten years ago.
He was the first person in the family to go to university, where he graduated with a degree in English. She was passionate about foreign languages and dreamed of becoming a teacher. I hadn’t heard of them before synthetic opioids.
After graduating, Sammy found a job at a chemical company in the Chinese city Shijiazhuang, selling what she thought were chemicals to customers around the world. He used English every day when talking to his customers online and earned a commission for every sale he made. Her dream of becoming a teacher was quickly dashed.
“Perhaps others are like me… At first we don’t know what we sell, but when we found out, we fell in love with the work,” he said. “With this job you can make money.”
Sammy [nombre ficticio] is one of thousands of online sales agents that international security agencies estimate work for illegal Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical companies, who manufacture and smuggle illegal drugs made in laboratories.
Fentanyl in the US
The US government has long been accused China of flooding the country with deadly drugs like fentanyla synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, which has been rejected by the Chinese government.
Washington claims that Chinese-made opioids are fueling the worst drug crisis in US history. In 2022, more than 70,000 Americans will die fentanyl overdose.
According to a report published by the US House of Representatives on the Chinese Communist Party, the Beijing government provides subsidies to companies that openly traffic in. illegal synthetic drugs. In addition, it warns about tens of thousands of online advertising posts illegal drugs and drug precursors.
The study says that “fully state-owned” companies are involved in the drug trade. The Chinese government has consistently denied any knowledge of the illegal drug trade.
Many like Sammy fall into the drug trade seemingly by accident, initially unaware of the type of products they sell online and their deadly consequences. However, others are more aware of what they are selling.
Every morning, Sara [nombre ficticio] posting photos and videos on their social media platforms advertising drugs: synthetic cannabinoids, MDMA (ecstasy) precursors, and nitazenesa synthetic opioid up to 50 times more powerful than even fentanyl.
“We have many clients in the United Kingdom and have collaborated with them many times,” said Sara, who has a degree in International Business and now works on a platform on- line.
When asked about what she does, she does not engage in a moral debate about selling drugs. She says that she never asks customers how to use what she sells.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) believes that drug traffickers are mixing the a synthetic opioid with illegal drugs such as heroin.
According to the NCA, there have been more than 100 deaths linked to nitazenes in the past nine months, prompting health professionals to warn that the UK could be in the midst of a drug crisis.
The BBC found hundreds of adverts for nitazenes on the internet. The suppliers contacted will offer to go through courier services, identifying wrong deliveries and concealing drugs in false packaging.
The BBC also found courier tracking numbers provided by an online sales representative in China, which claims to have made successful deliveries across the UK.
Sara entered the business after college. He thought I was selling chemicals. He has been working in the industry for two and a half years. “I know most of the products,” he says.
“My boss has run this company for over seven years and knows a lot of customers and distributors. If the product is withheld, it will lose the most. So, he will do everything possible to ensure that the product reaches you without any problem,” he said.
In March, the British government identified 15 synthetic opioids as Class A drugs. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, anyone caught supplying or manufacturing drugs could be jailed. life imprisonment. Those arrested with drugs face up to seven years in prison.
according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)There are between 40,000 and 100,000 pharmaceutical companies in China.
“China has long had one of the largest pharmaceutical industries in Asia, as well as one of the largest chemical industries. And we have seen growth in the industry in other countries in the region,” he said. Jeremy Douglas at the end of 2023, the then regional representative in Southeast Asia and the Pacific of UNODC.
“Although both businesses are regulated, the challenge is huge given its scale and, at the same time, there are multiple ways to move products. Mail packages, air transport and shipping containers They move around the globe in large numbers,” he explained.
Douglas claims that synthetic drugs are displacing the traditional drug trade. Outside of China, synthetic drugs offer opportunities for traditional criminal groups and new companies, able to buy directly from agents located on the other side of the world.
“Synthetic likes (drugs). fentanyl They have several advantages over traditional drugs: They are compact, portable, in demand and replaceable. They are attractive to sellers“.
This was confirmed in my conversations with salespeople who work for Chinese pharmaceutical companies. “First of all, our packaging is completely secret, no one knows what’s in it until it’s opened. And secondly, we changed the name of the package and did not reveal any name about the product,” says Sara.
“We receive the logistics order number when we send the package, we track it all the time and any irregularity can be detected and resolved in time,” he said.
According to Europol, the European police agency, China is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of laboratory-made synthetic drugs. Some mimic the effects of traditional drugs such as cannabis or cocaine. Chemists synthesize new medicines to stay one step ahead of the law.
“It is a criminal enterprise, but in a legitimate framework that is truly unique,” says Dr Louise Shelly, director of the Center for Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption (TraCCC) from George Mason University and author of the book Dark Trade (Dark Trade).
“I have not seen such professionalism and even a corporate element to this anywhere else in the world. “Criminal activity offers a form of social mobility,” he says.
In 2020, TraCCC researchers conducted a study more than 350 English websites offering fentanyl. “Of the ads we found, almost 40% came from corporate records and the largest center of them was in Wuhan,” said Shelly.
Dealers contacted by the BBC see the drug trade as just another side of it e-commerce. When asked about selling life-threatening drugs, one described herself as “a mediator“.
“Somebody needs it, somebody makes it, and I’m just a middleman letting customers know I have it and I don’t care what they do with it,” she says. “Then I realized I needed to make money. “Everyone has their own needs.”
The woman boasts that she has had clients ever since Canada until Croatia. Provides photos of recent drug shipments with labels showing incoming address United Kingdom. “At first I didn’t know until I went online and translated the product into Chinese,” he says in a message with a crying emoji.
“This sector is easy and you get higher salaries, which attracts a lot of young people,” says Natalie [nombre ficticio]another dealer targeting fentanyl.
“We buy from more than 10 different laboratories and we have a good selection. “I have a professional shipping agent who packs the products, so I have a very high delivery success rate in the UK,” he says.
Meanwhile, another provider said it was possible smuggling drugs into the UK hidden in dog food packaging. “You don’t have to worry about packaging. We guarantee safe delivery. “
“We send a huge amount around the world every day. Trust our professional team. We guarantee 100% safe transport,” he says.
In 2019, the Chinese government banned all forms of fentanyl and its analogs. In January 2024, China and the United States launched a collaboration to ban the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“As long as market demand remains high in some parts of the world, that demand will be met one way or another,” Jeremy Douglas of the United Nations warned.
