In an intensive search for nitazenos on the internet, this newspaper verified the supply of several of its derivatives. In the ‘dark web’, that hidden corner of the internet that is accessed with specific browsers and search engines, is the seller ‘Roi’. «Our opioid products … “They are great to smoke,” he says, offering isotonitazene, “a new synthetic opium with structural similarity to other opioids and analogous to other nitazenes.” Although he warns: “Due to its chemical properties, the solubility in water is not very good, but it can be dissolved in methanol or ethanol.” Accepts bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.
Advertisements have a short life. They move like traffickers through the shadows. The price of this drug: 25 grams for 400 euros. There are traces of other ‘dealers’, but there is nothing left on those routes. Nitazenes, which break into laboratories to make mixtures cheaper, are alone somewhat more expensive than, for example, fentanyl, for which they ask 10 euros per gram. On Telegram there are accounts with a handful of subscribers who claim to sell nitazenos in different variants and from the United Kingdom.
But where nitazenos ads proliferate the most is on the most accessible social network of all, Twitter. Cindy offers metonitazene “cheap, in stock, good and with a reliable supplier” and leaves her Telegram and Threema account. A broader range of “pharmaceutical intermediates and raw materials”, including metonitazene, isotonitazene and protonitazene, have two other accounts, those of Sofía and Elena, which give their WhatsApp and email. “The purity is greater than 99%, which has been well received by customers,” says one of them. And “a free sample” provides Lareina.
All of these profiles are based in China and would make their shipments from there. They all seem like a carbon copy of each other and have few followers. There are dozens of similar ads. From the amounts offered, both on Twitter and on the ‘deep web’, it is deduced that they are targeting the local drug trafficker niche that will make the mix in their territory for retail.
Consumer scams
In a Spanish opioid buyers forum, where even leftover prescription medication is trafficked, they warn of the scams of these Chinese accounts. When investigating more about this type of deception, it is found that in the deal images of the laboratory, the personnel and the substance are sent; that an advance of money is requested, either in cryptocurrency or by remittance to an address in China; who claim to have shipped to the address agreed upon by the customer.
Image of one of the nitazenos ads on Twitter.
R.C.
The scam tries to go beyond that advance. After a few days, the seller writes with a warning: that the package is detained at customs, that he must pay more to avoid problems with the law. The drug buyer becomes a victim of a fraud based on fear.
A contacted trafficker claimed to send the shipment to Spain by private and secure courier. However, this newspaper did not place any orders or make any purchases. Given all this, a lone X user warns: “I already overdosed this year. I died and was revived, two weeks ago. The heroin was mixed with metonitazene. “I have no tolerance.”
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