The tactics used by Asian companies to send synthetic drugs to Europe and the USA

More than a decade ago, when Sammy left her village in China’s Sichuan province to attend a university in the north of the country, she was following a well-known rite of passage.

But still, she was the first person in her family to go to university. She studied English and had a passion for foreign languages. She dreamed of being a teacher. Until then, she had never heard of synthetic opioids.

After graduating, Sammy found work at a chemical company in the city of Shijiazhuang, selling what she thought were chemicals to customers around the world.

She practiced English every day by talking to customers online and earned a commission for each sale she made. Her dreams of becoming a teacher quickly disappeared.

“Maybe others are like me… At first, we don’t know what we’re selling, but when we find out, we fall in love with the work,” she tells BBC News.

“This work can make money.”

International investigative agencies estimate that there may be thousands of opioid sellers on the internet, working for illicit Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical companies, who produce and smuggle these illegal laboratory-made drugs.

The U.S. says Chinese-made opioids are fueling the worst drug crisis in the country’s history. As of 2022, more than 70,000 Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses.

The US has a problem with the smuggling and abuse of the powerful opioid fentanyl.

According to a report published by a US committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the Asian country’s government provides subsidies to companies that openly traffic illicit synthetic drugs. The report found tens of thousands of posts on the internet advertising the sale of these illegal drugs.

The study states that “fully state-owned” companies are involved in drug trafficking. The Chinese government has systematically denied knowledge of the illegal narcotics trade.

Many like Sammy get into drug trafficking seemingly by accident, initially unaware of the products they sell online and their consequences. But others are more aware of what they are selling.

Every morning, Sara [nome fictício] publishes photos and videos on their social media profiles advertising drugs: synthetic cannabinoids, MDMA, and nitazene – an opioid considered up to 50 times more potent than fentanyl.

“We have many customers in Great Britain and have cooperated with them many times” says Sara, a graduate in International Trade, who now works for an internet sales platform.

She is not attracted to a moral discussion about drug sales. And she claims that she never asks customers how they use the products.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) believes drug dealers are mixing synthetic opioids with other drugs such as heroin.

According to the NCA, the UK has recorded more than 100 deaths linked to nitazene in the past nine months, prompting health professionals to warn that the country could soon face a drugs crisis.

BBC News found hundreds of advertisements for nitazenes on the internet.

The suppliers interviewed by the report claim to send shipments through express courier services, labeling deliveries and hiding medicines in false packaging.

The BBC also saw courier tracking numbers provided by sales representatives in China – they claimed to have made successful deliveries across the UK.

Sara went into business after university. She thought she was selling chemicals. She has worked in the sector for two and a half years. “I know most of the products,” she says.

“My boss has been running this company for over seven years and knows a lot of customers and forwarders. If the product is held up, he will lose more. Therefore, he will do his best to make sure the product reaches you without any problems,” he explains.

In March, the UK government classified 15 synthetic opioids as “Class A” drugs, considered dangerous. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, anyone caught supplying or producing illicit drugs can face life imprisonment. Those caught in possession of these drugs 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 Asia’s most significant pharmaceutical industries, as well as one of the largest chemical industries. And we have seen the growth of this sector in other countries in the region,” said Jeremy Douglas, UNODC’s UK regional representative.

“While both industries are regulated, the challenge is significant given the scale and at the same time a range of ways to move products. Parcel post, air freight and sea containers are all moving globally in large volumes,” states.

Douglas says that synthetics are disrupting the traditional drug trade. Outside of China, synthetic narcotics offer opportunities for both traditional criminal organizations and new companies capable of purchasing directly from producers around the world.

“Synthetics like fentanyl have several advantages over traditional medicines – compact, easily transportable, with pre-existing demand, replaceable. They are attractive to traffickers,” says Douglas.

This was confirmed in conversations in the BBC News report with salespeople who work for Chinese pharmaceutical companies.

“Firstly, our packaging is completely secret, no one knows what it is until you open it, and secondly, we will change the name of the packaging and will not reveal any name about the product,” says Sara.

“We will receive the logistics order number when the order is sent, we monitor the status of the order at any time and any anomalies can be known and resolved in time”, he adds.

According to Europol, the European police agency, China is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of laboratory-made synthetic drugs. Some of them mimic the effects of traditional drugs, such as cannabis and cocaine. Chemists synthesize new medicines to stay one step ahead of the law.

“It’s criminal entrepreneurship, but in a legal setting that’s really unique,” ​​says Louise Shelly, director of the Center on Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption (TraCCC), at George Mason University, in the United States.

“I haven’t seen so much professionalism and a corporate element in this anywhere else in the world. Criminal activity was a type of social mobility,” says Shelly, who also wrote a book about this market.

In 2020, TraCCC researchers studied more than 350 English-language websites that advertised the synthetic opioid fentanyl. “Of all the listings we found, almost 40% of them were for corporate registrations, and the biggest hub for that market was in Wuhan,” says Shelly.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers locate fentanyl and other narcotics hidden in a package at the International Mail Facility on November 28, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. The package came from China.

Sellers contacted by the BBC see the drug trade as simply another aspect of electronic commerce.

When asked about the sale of drugs that harm lives, one of them described herself as a “middleman”.

“Someone needs it, someone makes it, and I’m just an intermediary who informs customers that I have the product. I don’t care what they do with it,” she says. “Then I discovered I just need to make money. I don’t know and I don’t care. Everyone has their own needs.”

The woman is proud to have clients from Canada to Croatia. She provided photos of recent drug shipments complete with labels showing a UK address.

“At first, I didn’t know, until I went online and translated the product into Chinese,” she says, through a message punctuated by a crying emoji.

Natalie [nome fictício] focuses on fentanyl. “This industry is easy and you get higher wages, which attracts a lot of young people,” she says.

“We buy from over 10 different laboratories and have a great selection. I have a professional shipping agent who packs goods, so it has a very high delivery success rate to the UK,” he adds.

Meanwhile, another supplier claimed to be able to smuggle drugs into the UK hidden in dog food packaging. “You don’t have to worry about packaging. We guarantee safe delivery,” he says.

“We ship large quantities all over the world daily. Trust our professional team. We guarantee 100% safe transportation.”

In 2019, China’s government banned all forms of fentanyl and similar drugs. In January 2024, China and the United States launched a joint operation to reduce 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,” said UNODC’s Douglas.