Latest news with #illicitdrugs
New York Times
9 hours ago
- New York Times
Cocaine Is the Fastest-Growing Illegal Drug Worldwide. Here's Why.
More people around the world are using illicit drugs than ever — more than 316 million in 2023. Marijuana is the most used drug, followed by opioids and amphetamines. But it is the cocaine market that continues to break records year after year. Global production reached a new high in 2023, racing to meet record demand and fueling new highs in cocaine-related deaths in many countries in recent years, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. An estimated 25 million people used cocaine worldwide in 2023 — up from 17 million a decade earlier. Production jumped by 34 percent from 2022. Tracking the production and consumption of illicit drugs, including cocaine, is complex and time-consuming. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's annual World Drug Report, which this year includes data through 2023, is one of the few sources of global data on the illegal drug trade. Here's what it shows about the worldwide cocaine market. Where does cocaine come from? The coca plant, the main ingredient for cocaine, is primarily cultivated in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Colombia drove the recent increase in illegal cocaine production because of an expansion of coca cultivation areas and better yields from each acre. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Operation Pangea: Illegal tablets worth £1.1m seized in NI
Counterfeit and illicit medicines, with a street value of about £1.1m, have been seized during a major operation targeting criminal drugs, which were destined for Northern Ireland, were recovered over a five month period from December 2024 to May than 846,000 tablets were seized including diazepam which is used to treat anxiety, pregabalin which is used to medicate epilepsy and anxiety, steroids, botox and weight loss major crackdown is part of Operation Pangea, an international initiative led by Interpol. Keeping money away from gangs Justice Minister Naomi Long said the operation was removing cash from the pockets of organised crime gangs."This is an initiative led globally by Interpol, which aims to combat the illegal online trade in counterfeit and unlicensed medicines and health products," she added."Operation Pangea doesn't just disrupt criminal activity, it also gives us a platform to raise awareness about the dangers of purchasing medicines online which can often be unregulated, counterfeit and potentially deadly."We need to recognise this is just one part of a much larger ongoing effort." Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)'s Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said the destruction and devastation caused by illicit pharmaceuticals "must not be underestimated"."I want to send a very clear message to those involved in the supply of counterfeit prescription drugs that we will do everything in our power to disrupt their activities as part of our sustained drive against drugs and criminality." 'Unregulated and counterfeit drugs' The Health Minister Mike Nesbitt warned the drugs were "unregulated, substandard and counterfeit.""What concerns me is the damage that could do to individuals who were taking those, either in good faith or because they are being forced into it," he added."These organised crime groups are only interested in themselves and the damage they are doing to individuals, and the pressure that is putting on the health and social care system, is something that we have to deal with."
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Global cocaine boom keeps setting new records, UN report says
File photo. Photo: NZ Customs Service The global cocaine trade keeps setting new records, with cocaine the world's fastest-growing illicit drug market as Colombia production surges along with users in Europe and North and South America, a United Nations report published on Thursday says. The annual UN Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) World Drug Report showed that in 2023, the latest year for which comprehensive data was available, the cocaine trade went from strength to strength. "Production, seizures, and use of cocaine all hit new highs in 2023, making cocaine the world's fastest-growing illicit drug market," the Vienna-based UNODC said in a statement. On the supply side, global estimated illegal production of cocaine rose by around a third to a record of more than 3708 tons, mainly because of an increase in the area devoted to illicit coca bush cultivation in Colombia and updated data that showed the yield there was roughly 50 percent higher than in 2022. The estimated number of cocaine users globally also kept growing, reaching 25 million people in 2023, up from 17 million 10 years earlier, the UNODC said. "North America, Western and Central Europe and South America continue to constitute the largest markets for cocaine, on the basis of the number of people who used drugs in the past year and on data derived from wastewater analysis," it said. The synthetic drug market also continues to expand, helped by low operational costs and reduced risk of detection for those making or smuggling the drugs, the UNODC said. The leading drugs there were amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) like methamphetamine and amphetamine. "Seizures of ATS reached a record high in 2023 and accounted for almost half of all global seizures of synthetic drugs, followed by synthetic opioids, including fentanyl," the UNODC said. -Reuters
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Yahoo
Deadly opioid 40 times more powerful than fentanyl smuggled into Canada inside PlayStations, basketballs
The video call is grainy, but it's crystal clear what the person on the phone is trying to sell: illicit drugs, packaged and ready to be shipped to Canada. The seller, who goes by the name Kim, says he sells cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and nitazenes, a powerful class of synthetic opioids most people have never heard of — but which can be up to 43 times more powerful than fentanyl. "It can kill people, right? So, I just want to make sure that you know that," the CBC journalist asks in a secretly recorded phone call. "That is the game," the seller replies. The seller is one of the 14 people the CBC's visual investigation unit spoke to in text messages and phone calls after finding them through ads posted by users on major social media platforms such as LinkedIn, X and Reddit and e-commerce websites advertising nitazenes for ads, posted in the open, contain contact information that put CBC in touch with drug dealers who claim to be part of international criminal networks. CBC did not purchase any illegal substances. Nitazenes, which have never been approved for medical use and are Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, have increasingly been turning up in drug busts across Canada. Last year, two lab busts in Quebec alone may have accounted for more than a million counterfeit pharmaceutical oxycodone pills, which were actually protonitazepyne, a type of nitazene — or "analog" — according to the RCMP. Nitazenes have killed hundreds of Canadians over the past four years, according to data collected by CBC's visual investigations unit from coroners across the country. "[North Americans] not only are the largest consumers of nitazines, but really have the biggest problem as it relates to the number of deaths," said Alex Krotulski, director of the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education in Pennsylvania, a toxicology lab that tests for nitazenes in Canada and the U.S. "This is really becoming an established drug class of novel synthetic opioids." Nitazenes aren't nearly as popular as fentanyl and its analogs, but they offer a more potent high, making them appealing to drug dealers. Drug users might not even know they're consuming nitazenes, which can be laced into counterfeit pills. "It makes me angry," said Montreal resident Christian Boivin after CBC shared its findings with him. Boivin's 15-year-old son Mathis died of a nitazene overdose last year after consuming what he thought were oxycodone pills. "[These sellers] don't have a conscience. They're bad people and they just want money… they don't care about lives." Mathis's story isn't an isolated case. Because public-facing statistics group them as "non-fentanyl opioids," CBC reached out to coroners in all 13 provinces and territories to compile data on the total number of deaths from nitazenes in Canada. The data received was incomplete — for example, Manitoba only provided statistics for 2024 — but indicates there have been nearly 400 deaths directly attributed to nitazenes or suspected to involve nitazenes since 2021. The true number of deaths is likely even higher. "I guarantee you because of the variability in toxicology testing, the variability in practices and variability in funding availability… [the number of deaths] is underreported," said Donna Papsun, a forensic toxicologist at Pennsylvania-based NMS Labs, which tests samples from across Canada. "If they're not looking for it, you can't find it." Going by the available data, the most deaths were in Alberta, with 121 since 2021, followed by Quebec with 91 and B.C. with 81. "We're worried that this will continue to rise as an ongoing threat," said Dan Anson, director general of intelligence and investigations for the Canada Border Services Agency. Sellers reveal how they smuggle drugs One of the ways that nitazenes make their way into Canada is through sellers who advertise on social media networks by posting images of powders overlaid with contact information. "Online ads are how this market functions right now," Anson told CBC. CBC's visual investigations unit, with support from open-source investigators at Bellingcat, found hundreds of ads in user-generated posts for more than a dozen types of nitazenes on social media platforms, including X, Reddit, LinkedIn, Behance (a graphic design website owned by Adobe), and e-commerce websites in India such as Exporters India, Dial4trade and TradeIndia. They surfaced by the dozens in Google image searches for keywords related to nitazene analogs. It often took mere minutes to receive a reply after responding to an online ad. Sellers were quick to share videos of their labs and products, even offering a step-by-step guide on how they would ship the drugs to Canada: first, by mislabelling the packages, then by concealing them inside PlayStation 5s, deflated basketballs, teapots and Chinese herbal packages. They would then be shipped via courier or the mail. Previous reporting on the topic in the U.K. even had the drugs hidden in dog food and catering supplies. One seller told a CBC reporter that shipments of nitazene could even be delivered the same day from Detroit, Mich., to Windsor, Ont. Platforms respond to CBC's questions on nitazene ads: "You'll see some pretty bizarre levels of creativity when it comes to importing illegal drugs," said Anson. "They're coming from online marketplaces ... and they're going to come through postal courier." When reached by CBC for comment, LinkedIn, Reddit and Adobe removed the posts containing ads that were flagged. X did not respond to a request for comment and the flagged posts were still live at the time of publishing. A Google spokesperson said it complies with valid legal removal requests from the public and authorities. Dial4Trade and Exporters India, two India-based e-commerce platforms where ads were found, told CBC they added restrictions to block nitazene ads. TradeIndia, another platform, said it removed the flagged ads. A global network It became clear that sellers of nitazenes are spread across the globe, and aren't always who or where they purport to be online. On the e-commerce site TradeIndia, next to the heading "Etonitazene Powder," was a picture of a brown powder offered by a Chinese biotech company. On its website, the company states "nothing is above the human health." It has an address listed in Shanghai that doesn't exist on Google Maps. But the company was quick to explain why the address didn't exist when asked in a secretly recorded phone call. "It's very dangerous to sell in China," a man who went by Jerry told a CBC reporter during a call with a Mandarin translator. Jerry said he and his partners needed a fake address to make the company seem real, but also so they couldn't be discovered by Chinese authorities. To show they were legitimate distributors, they shared videos from their lab — and said the name of the CBC reporter and the date to prove the video's authenticity — and showed us past shipments to Canada. They even offered to send samples of nitazenes for free to test for purity. But the sellers weren't just from China. CBC spoke to sellers who claimed to ship from the U.S., the U.K., India, even the Philippines. Over video, one seller who said they're from the U.K. showed shipment records that he said were for drugs going to Grande Prairie, Alta. Like any global trade, some nitazene sellers said they were struggling with the impact of U.S. tariffs. A person representing a company called Umesh Enterprises that claimed to be based out of India said nitazenes are "coming from India.... due to the issues going on between the U.S. and China with the tariffs," they said during a call. "There's been a lot of blockage from China so…. we go with India." The speaker, like many of the sellers, acknowledged that importing nitazenes to Canada is illegal and knew how lethal these synthetic opioids can be. "[These sellers] don't care how many people they take down or how many families they hurt," said Toronto resident Dale Sutherland, whose 22-year-old son Corey died from an overdose involving a nitazene in 2022. "It's very frustrating…. we have to have more regulations, more strict penalties." In response to CBC's findings, Canada's fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, said in a statement the "emergence of nitazenes, and other highly potent synthetic opioids, is something I am concerned about and am taking very seriously." Brosseau pointed to the federal government's recently tabled Bill C-2, or Strong Borders Act, which will give Canada Post more authority to open mail and remove barriers to law enforcement inspecting mail during an investigation. Critics of the proposed act say that it would curtail civil liberties. This month, a coalition of more than 300 civil society groups demanded the complete withdrawal of Bill C-2, warning it would expand government surveillance. Do you have any tips on this story? Please contact Eric Szeto:
CTV News
10-06-2025
- CTV News
Package containing contraband seized from N.B. penitentiary
Dorchester Penitentiary in Dorchester, N.B., is pictured on April 16, 2024. Correctional Service Canada (CSC) says contraband and unauthorized items were recently seized from a federal correctional facility in Dorchester, N.B. The items, which were seized on June 2, were in a package on the perimeter of the medium security unit at Dorchester Penitentiary. The items included methamphetamine, marijuana, shatter, nicotine patches and tobacco. The total estimated institutional value of the seizure is $534,100, according to CSC. The agency says police have been notified and the institution is investigating. In March, correctional staff at the facility also seized a package on the perimeter of the medium-security unit which contained illicit drugs and cellphones with an institutional value of $941,502. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
