Deadly opioid drugs found in fake meds

Warning of killer nitazenes spreading across UK

- ADAM ASPINALL

BLACK market medicines contain a substance linked to hundreds of deaths across the UK, sparking fears of a drug epidemic.

A BBC probe found more than 100 examples of people trying to buy prescription medicines such as diazepam but instead receiving products containing nitazenes.

According to the National Crime Agency, nitazenes have been connected to 278 UK deaths in a year.

The synthetic opioids can be many times stronger than fentanyl - which is itself far more potent than heroin.

Drug expert Professor Christopher Stove warns nitazenes have all the ingredients to create a drug crisis.

They were first detected in the US in 2019 but appear to have spread widely in the last 12 months. Now, they are flooding Europe's drug markets.