DEADLY DRUG RECIPES TESTED ON HUMANS

Restrictions on fentanyl ingredients spawn experiments involving sedatives, anaesthetics

- By New York Times

CULIACAN, Mexico - The cartel operatives came to the homeless encampment carrying syringes filled with their latest fentanyl formula. The offer was simple, according to two men living at the camp in north-west Mexico: up to US$30 (S$40.80) for anyone willing to inject themselves with the concoction.

One of the men, Mr Pedro Lopez Camacho, said he volunteered repeatedly - at times, the operatives were visiting every day. They watched the drug take effect, Mr Lopez Camacho said, snapping photos and filming his reaction. He survived, but he said he saw many others who did not.

"When it's really strong, it knocks you out or kills you," said Mr Lopez Camacho of the drugs he and others were given. "The people here died."

This is how far Mexican cartels will go to dominate the fentanyl business.

Global efforts to crack down on the synthetic opioid have made it harder for these criminal groups to find the chemical compounds they need to produce the drug. The original source, China, has restricted exports of the necessary raw ingredients, pushing the cartels to come up with new and extremely risky ways to maintain fentanyl production and potency.

The experimentation, members of the cartels say, involves combining the drug with a wider range of additives - including animal sedatives and other dangerous anaesthetics.

To test their results, the criminals who make the fentanyl for the cartels, often called cooks, say they inject their experimental mixtures into human subjects as well as rabbits and chickens.

If the rabbits survive beyond 90 seconds, the drug is deemed too weak to be sold to Americans, according to six cooks and two US Embassy officials who monitor cartel activity. The US officials said that when Mexican law enforcement units have raided fentanyl labs, they have at times found the premises riddled with dead animals used for testing.