Europe

Nitazenes were developed in the 1950s by a Swiss chemical company as a new type of painkiller, but the drug was so potent that it was never approved as a medicine. Even trace quantities can cause an overdose.

Decades later, nitazenes have re-emerged in the underground drug market: they have been detected in counterfeit prescription medicines, including fake oxycodone and benzodiazepines pills, and in street drugs, including cocaine, heroin and ketamine.

The UN drugs agency and countries around the world have warned of the major health risks posed by nitazenes. The super-strength opioid has already caused hundreds of deaths in Europe, the UK and North America.

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In April 2019, Estonia became the first country in Europe to identify isotonitazene in drug seizures. New types of the drug followed and, over the years, Estonia recorded a rise in the proportion of nitazene deaths: half of all drug-related deaths over the past two years were caused by nitazenes, according to the most recent official figures.

Estonia is no stranger to synthetic opioids: it faced one of the first fentanyl epidemics in the world in the early 2000s, lasting nearly two decades and causing almost 1,500 deaths. After Estonian police cracked down on fentanyl labs in 2017, the drugs largely disappeared. But they were soon replaced by an even deadlier substance.

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This investigation has linked a recent Estonian nitazene seizure case to China using publicly available documents. A court verdict from August 2024 shows a man was jailed after ordering two shipments of protonitazene. Postimees was granted permission to inspect court files related to the case, which showed one batch of drugs was ordered from a US phone number listed on a Chinese website which hosts online advertisements offering pharmaceuticals for sale.

Archived versions of the website, which say it is based in Nanjing city, show that it previously advertised three types of nitazenes, including protonitazene. These drugs have a “99 percent purity” level, according to the ads, and are transported in 1kg and 5kg bags or 25kg drums. Archived versions of the site say the pharmaceutical company is focussed on “serving foreign customers” and that its products have been sent to more than 30 countries. The court judgment said the drugs were shipped from a DHL distributor in Germany before arriving in Estonia.

Authorities in Norway have also seized nitazenes originating in China. Seven packages containing the drugs and totalling more than 150g were seized during 2023, according to public records requests to Norwegian Customs. The largest of the packages, 90.4g, was shipped via FedEx to Oslo’s main airport from Hong Kong.

Bellingcat and Postimees have uncovered another link between Chinese-made nitazenes and Europe. One package of yellow powder, which was labeled as “nail paste”, was intercepted in Stockholm in August 2019. The package, which testing showed contained almost 49g of isotonitazene, had been couriered from Shanghai, according to documents obtained through a public request to Swedish customs.

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