The National Crime Agency caught Robert Poleszak, a 45-year-old Polish national, selling synthetic opioids. He pleaded guilty to selling Class A drugs. In court details cited by The Telegraph, one customer wrote of his opioid pills: "Stopped breathing and ended up in hospital for a night, would NOT recommend." Two other buyers died of overdoses and never left feedback.
Nitazenes, described as a "Frankenstein" drug and an "invisible killer", can be up to 500 times stronger than heroin. Scientists designed them in the 1950s as extreme painkillers, but they were never approved for medicine because they were far too addictive and lethal. Rogue chemists in China are now producing the substance for dark-web sellers and postal deliveries into the UK, The Telegraph reported.
Dr Caroline Copeland, a senior lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at King's College London, told The Telegraph the drug is almost impossible to measure safely. She compared a deadly heroin dose to a quarter of a teaspoon and a nitazene dose to "just a single grain of salt – and not a big one either." A dose that small can kill an adult. She said dealers often do not know which batch is stronger or weaker, and that users on the street become the test. Experts say the drug makes heroin look like paracetamol.
Nitazenes have been officially linked to at least 400 deaths across the UK in three years. Toxicology experts fear the true number is much higher because the chemical breaks down quickly and leaves almost no trace in post-mortems.
The rise comes as international heroin supplies fall after the Taliban's crackdown on opium harvesting in Afghanistan. To fill the gap and raise profits, dealers are mixing nitazenes into street heroin, cocaine and fake prescription pills without telling buyers. Former deputy drug tsar Mike Trace told The Telegraph that nitazenes are massively more powerful than heroin, so the line between a manageable dose and a lethal one is very hard to tell. When people do not know they are taking them, he said, "it's like playing Russian roulette with the risk of overdosing." He called it a big change in the market.
Comatose users and paramedic call-outs have become a daily problem on British high streets. Police seizures include a raid in east London that recovered 150,000 nitazene pills, but experts warn that law enforcement alone will not stop the supply.