Lloyd Linn, journalist
As the Finnish media Iltalehti writes in its article dated May 5 this year, in Europe there is a growing danger that fentanyl and other synthetic opioids will soon be widespread on the European continent following the United States. More than 70,000 people in the United States died from overdoses caused by synthetic drugs in 2022, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The crisis is inevitable, only its scale remains in question
According to Foreign Policy magazine, the ‘Ndrangheta is already distributing fentanyl in Europe. This is an influential mafia organization from the southern Italian province of Calabria. Now, as the media write, the organization is also trying to profit from the problems of the heroin trade. The European Union estimates that the vast majority of heroin used in Europe comes from Afghanistan, but since the Taliban banned poppy cultivation, the availability of heroin from Afghanistan has declined sharply.
Commenting on this threat, Pierre Lapaque, a member of the International Narcotics Control Board, emphasized:
“I think the question is not so much whether it will come to Europe, but rather when and how big the wave or hurricane will be.”
It is also expected that to fill the heroin shortage, criminal organizations will either begin to combine heroin with synthetic opioids, or completely replace it, for example, with fentanyl. A report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes that North America’s experience of displacing fentanyl from heroin in a significant drug market shows how cheaper and more readily available synthetic opioids can easily displace heroin.
50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine
Experts note that fentanyl can be 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. The risk of overdose among fentanyl users is high, since even in small doses it is life-threatening. In this regard, European authorities are warning that organized crime groups are aiming to create a large-scale opioid crisis. For example, according to Swedish broadcaster SVT, Italian intelligence agencies have also warned of the ‘Ndranghetan’s growing interest in starting to supply fentanyl to the European market.
Along with this, the Italian government recently held a press conference regarding this information, at which it was said that the mafia wants to create an even larger market for drug trafficking in Europe. According to intelligence, the mafia is also interested in distributing the so-called zombie drug, or xylazine. British authorities recently warned that xylazine was responsible for the country’s first 11 deaths.
