The van tacks on the departmental road 911, crossing the Aveyron from south to north. The model of the vehicle is the most banal there is. Its route carefully avoids the main roads. His load consists of a few boxes and garbage bags. The trip was going without a hitch on January 19, until a uniformed patrol signaled the driver to pull over. Unexpected customs control.
Loaded in Spain, bound for the Netherlands, the monochrome content of the boxes leaves little room for doubt. These fine white crystals, displaying 613 kg on the scale, feed a drug trafficking network… But it is not, however, cocaine. Early chemical tests indicate a reaction to PCP (phencyclidine, a hallucinogenic mind-altering drug), ketamine and “bath salts”.
Urgently sent to a specialized laboratory located in Marseille, the powder reveals its identity the next day. Synthetic cathinone, a derivative of khat leaves – an African shrub with stimulating effects. The most popular among “ new psychoactive substances” (NSP), also called “new synthetic products” (NPS), these drugs produced in the laboratory which are derived by chemical modification from conventional drugs or medicines. Estimated value of the loot: 9,195,000 euros.
At the beginning of June, it was the turn of the Spanish civil guard to make another discovery: 3.2 tons of synthetic cathinone were seized in the port of Barcelona, representing a market value of 61 million euros. Never before had NSP seizures been so large in Europe, where these drugs supply an emerging market, under close surveillance.
“Molecule Race”
“Among the NPS, two large families are particularly under surveillance in France: synthetic cathinones – in particular 3-MMC – and synthetic cannabinoids, due to their increasing distribution on the territory”, indicate Sabrina Cherki and Michel Gandilhon, in charge of studies at the French Observatory of drugs and addictive tendencies. They specify that, in 2017, 3.8% of 17-year-olds said they had already consumed it – without knowing how to identify the type of NPS consumed –, compared to 1.9% in 2014.
“Spice Diamond”, “Yucatan Fire”, or “Chill X”, the names compete in originality
Rather than abstruse scientific denominations, consumers are more familiar with higher-selling trade names, associated with promotional offers accessible in a few clicks on the Internet and the dark Net and payable in bitcoins. “Spice Diamond”, “Yucatan Fire”, or “Chill X”, the names compete in originality. The Blue Buddha, or “Fart your skull”, is the synthetic cannabis that has undoubtedly had the greatest media impact in France. Identified in 2013, it has since been spotted in several schools, first in Normandy and then in the Hautes-Pyrénées, in the form of a vaping liquid.
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