Drugs concealed in jellies and beverages: seizures have tripled in one year
Traffickers are increasingly hiding banned substances in attractive food and drinks. Romanian Police seizures have tripled: from one tonne to three tonnes in a single year.
Psychoactive substances hidden in sweets and electronic cigarettes, chemists warn
Google News RO — Crime (ro) reports an alarming new trend: drug traffickers in Romania are increasingly resorting to sophisticated concealment methods, hiding banned substances in jellies, lollipops, gums and drinks, products ordered largely from websites outside the country.
Romanian Police chemists are raising the alarm: such samples are arriving increasingly often at the seven drug identification laboratories in the country. Psychoactive substances are presented in coloured packaging, with labels that create a false impression of safety.
"By appearance and label, they can create an impression of safety, but following analyses, we find that these can contain other substances than those mentioned on the label. We even have cannabinoids that are not indicated," a chemist declared.
The danger is amplified by the method of administration. Unlike inhaled THC, ingested substances have a delayed effect, which leads consumers to take additional doses before the effect of the first dose manifests itself.
"The effect, when administered through ingestion, is delayed compared to that of THC. Being delayed, they have the impression that it has not had an effect and they take more... and there have even been cases of intoxication reported," the same chemist added.
50 new substances invented in a single year
The process of identifying drugs in the laboratory takes between 20 minutes and several hours, depending on the complexity of the chemical formula. The main challenge consists in the rapid pace at which traffickers innovate: in just the past year, clandestine chemists created 50 new psychoactive substances. The European Drug Agency currently monitors no fewer than 1,000 substances considered dangerous.
Among samples recently analysed are also mushrooms of the Psilocybe species, cultivated on special substrates and inoculated with spores.
"The main alkaloids in these mushrooms that have psychoactive effects are psilocin and psilocybin. These are incriminated substances. They are developed on special substrates, are injected with mushroom spores and you wait until they are developed," explained a chemist from the police.
The laboratories operate non-stop, equipped with advanced analysis equipment. Even in these conditions, specialists acknowledge that they can barely keep pace with the inventiveness of trafficking networks.
Drug seizures have tripled, dealers resort to "dead drop"
In addition to concealment methods, traffickers have also adopted distribution tactics designed to eliminate any direct contact with buyers.
"They try to cover their tracks, to never meet with a consumer, and resort to the dead drop method," stated Bogdan Ghebaur, spokesman for Romanian Police.
Despite this, the results of investigators are in significant growth. Seized quantities have tripled compared to two years ago.
"If two years ago we spoke of one tonne captured in a single year, last year there were three tonnes and, as recent operations show, we are talking about seizures of tens of kilograms of drugs," Ghebaur concluded.
The identified narcotics are transferred to evidence storage facilities and subsequently destroyed. In the ranking of most consumed drugs in Romania, cannabis holds first place, followed by ethnobotanicals, with cocaine closing the podium.
Source: Google News RO — Crime (ro)