Business knows no boundaries. At the same time, it also knows no friends, enemies, family, or colleagues
This phrase implies that business operates across various limits, whether they are geographical, cultural, or technological. It's a reminder of the global nature of commerce and the opportunities that lie beyond traditional borders. And because business decisions are driven by objectives, profits, and strategies, it knows literally no one.
Because of this, some people would do anything, just to pursue success in business.
Some businesses are good, some businesses are bad. But some are much worse than worse.
Fentanyl has been a plague, and researchers may have finally know why that happens, because now they know how cheap and easy it is to create.
Narcotics are considered a lucrative business for several reasons.
From its high and widespread demand, high profit margins, limited competition, economic desperation and global reach, for example.
And fentanyl, a narcotic that is used for pain management, is particularly used to medically treat patients after surgery or for chronic pain in patients who are physically tolerant to other opioids.
Because the analgesic is 20 to 40 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, fentanyl is extremely dangerous, even in very small amounts.
However, people began to finally know that fentanyl is also significantly cheaper than other analgesic, people began abusing it.
And in the U.S., it's already an pandemic in some places, and also endemic in places like Philadelphia.
And researchers found that they could themselves develop fentanyl using minimum efforts.
All they need, is a web browser.
By spending just $3,600, they managed to create 3 million pills.
That is about $3 million worth of the drug.
In a report by Reuters, a few taps on a smartphone, landed the researchers on Chinese chemical sellers that would later air-ship them fentanyl ingredients door-to-door to North America.
The researchers bought 1-boc-4-piperidone, a pale powder that’s a core ingredient of fentanyl. Other ingredients include chemicals known as “precursors,” which are the drug’s other essential ingredients. This consists of piperidine-based compounds, which are core to fentanyl’s structure, and three additional precursors: (2-bromoethyl)benzene, propionyl chloride and aniline.
Since many sellers have stopped offering “immediate” precursors, suppliers have began selling sell the ingredients that are used to create the immediate precursors. These alternatives, or “pre-precursors,” require just minor extra steps to make fentanyl.
Then, there are "designer" precursor, an alternative to not having the required precursor. This includes ortho-methyl-boc-4-AP.
Communications happened on the Telegram Messenger, and payments were done in Bitcoins.
"No one knows what we ship," said one of the sellers.
While some ingredients are illegal to be bought in the U.S., some other chemicals are found pretty much everywhere, because they're used in perfumes and pharmaceuticals to rubber and dyes.
Together when combined, they create chemical reactions, which result to the creation of fentanyl.
To make this happen, only a modest lab skills and a basic grasp of chemistry is enough.
One Mexican fentanyl cook who dropped out of school at age 12 told Reuters he learned the trade as an apprentice at an illegal lab.
"It’s like making chicken soup," said the cook, an independent producer based in the cartel stronghold of Sinaloa state. "It’s mega-easy making that drug."
"And because of fentanyl’s potency, even small quantities of these precursors can produce vast numbers of tiny pills using a simple manufacturing process – rendering the ingredients, the final product and the supply chain easy to conceal from authorities," the researchers noted.
In their research, the researchers made multiple buys of the precursors in a duration of one year.
After scouting the dark web to finding illicit marketplaces for drugs, in the end, they succeeded in buying all 12 chemicals, totaling 6.6 kilograms, that could be used to make fentanyl, according to independent chemists consulted by Reuters.
Seven of the eight suppliers that delivered the precursors were based in China.
2 chemicals that came later, include sugar and lidocaine, a local anesthetic.
A total of 14 chemical orders were sent to addresses in Mexico and the U.S..
As for the hardware, they include a pill press, two die molds and a binding agent that could be used to produce small, light-blue tablets stamped with an "M" on one side and the number "30" on the other.
The researchers tried creating blue M30 pills, because it's considered much of the illegal fentanyl sold in U.S.
M30 is the signature marking of a generic version of the prescription painkiller oxycodone.
"Such deals are astonishingly easy – and reveal how drug traffickers are eluding efforts to halt the deadly trade behind the fentanyl crisis," the report said.
"Anyone with a mailbox, an internet connection and digital currency to pay the tab can source these chemicals," the report added.
During the conversation with the traders, the researchers also got pointers into how to make their fentanyl more potent, like adding Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that’s increasingly being mixed into fentanyl by drug traffickers.
On the streets, Xylazine is commonly used to lace both heroine and fentanyl, in order to make then cheaper and easier to sell.
Also known on the street as "Tranq," the drug has been linked to thousands upon thousands of drug overdoses, and also deaths.
Read: The Philadelphia Zombies That Shocked The Internet: The Horror Of Animal Tranquilizer
It's worth noting that the Reuters and the researchers didn't end up creating the fentanyl, and said that they had no intention to do so from the beginning.
They consulted independent chemists who said that the chemicals they purchased are indeed the ingredients that could be used to make fentanyl.
After they received that information, they arranged for safe destruction of the chemicals and other materials they purchased.
They also followed the guidance of lawyers before making the buys in an effort to ensure they complied with the law.
Reuters is also withholding detailed instructions and other information that could aid in synthesizing the drug.
Read: Dark Web Drug Dealer Guilty, Forfeited $4 Million In Bitcoin And Quadrillions Of Bank Notes
