The 'ndrangheta focuses on Fentanyl, the drug that kills
Gratteri: "It has a very high level of toxicity and is much more powerful than heroin"
MILENA CASTIGLI
After conquering Germany, Holland and Eastern Europe, the 'Ndrangheta (the richest and most powerful mafia in Italy, with a turnover of tens of billions of euros a year) is looking for new and more profitable spaces in the drug trafficking world betting on synthetic drugs. Their demand is indeed in strong increase so much that it represent an even more gigantic business, (if possible) respect the cocaine,of which - thanks to the historic agreement with the South American cartels that produce it - the 'Ndrangheta has almost the "monopoly" of distribution and street selling in most of Europe. "There is a significant increase in the consumption of synthetic drugs, so there is a significant portion of the market that has opened up and there the focus is on those who, like the" Ndrangheta, understand that they must guarantee everything.
In the wake of the conception that he has of theirself and that is of "mafia supermarket",they must respond with the offer where there is demand ". This is how the chief prosecutor of Catanzaro, Nicola Gratteri, explained in an interview with the newspaper "La Stampa" how an important window for synthetic drugs is opening up in the big drug market.
Fentanyl
The new "golden egg hen" for the 'Ndrangheta, according to Gratteri, is the Fentanyl "drug - he explains - at a very high level of toxicity, much more powerful than heroin". It is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic, belonging to the 4-anilidopiperidine class, 100 times more potent than morphine For this reason, it is used in hospitals before surgery or "invasive" maneuvers as an anesthetic, since it has a rapid onset - 30 seconds compared to the peak reached in 2 hours from methadone or 25/35 minutes from morphine in tablets - but short duration of action.
It has an effect similar to that of other opiates, especially in sublingual tablets, but outside hospitals it is used to "get high" by crushing the tablets and then sniffing them. Being much more powerful than many other synthetic substances, the higher the dosage, the higher the risk of establishing tolerance and, above all, overdosing. A sad example of this is the recent death of Andrea Zamperoni, the 33-year-old Italian chef of the Cipriani team, resident in Queens of New York, found lifeless in a neighborhood hostel on August 23rd. According to the New York police, the 33-year-old may have died from an overdose of Fentanyl given to him by a prostitute, Angela Barini.
The 44-year-old would have given him liquid ecstasy with the powerful opioid inside to make him unconscious and rob him of his personal effects. The conditional on the causes of death is a must: family members are still awaiting the results of the autopsy that have not yet been communicated. But Zamperoni is just the latest in a very long series of deaths related to the incorrect dosage of Fentanyl. "The biggest consumers - explains Gratteri - are above all young Americans, campus students and the many rave party goers. The demand is always higher ”. The greatest number of deaths is registered among young Americans and Canadians, overwhelmed by this very powerful synthetic opiate: 28,000 dead in 2017 alone, according to the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).
A new social emergency. Last month President Donald Trump told the Reuters agency that America is "losing thousands of people because of Fentanyl" accusing (in part) the China of the massacre: on August 23rd, regarding the new duties against the Asian giant, he had tweeted: "... In addition, I order all shippers - including Fedex, Amazon, Ups, and post offices - to search and stop all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or from anywhere else). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year, President Xi said he would stop him but he did not ... ".
Business with six zeros
But what for the US is a "social emergency", on the contrary for the mafias represents a real business: "a kilo of Fentanyl powder costs 10,500 euros. Worked with the appropriate equipment and substances can generate a million pills. Each one of these is sold on the market for 20 dollars (18.16 euros) ", explains Antonio Nicaso, organized crime university professor in North America and author of numerous essays on the 'ndrangheta together with Gratteri.
And if mathematics has not become an opinion, one kg of Fentanyl earns 18 million and 149,500 thousand euros. A huge amount: 1.730% gain compared to the initial cost. "Beyond the profits - explains Nicaso on La Stampa - there are reasons for expediency" which explain why the 'Ndrangheta is focusing on Fentanyl. "The production of synthetic drugs - he explains - is not subject to incidental travails of a geopolitical nature, as happened for example for the heroine in Afghanistan when the war broke out or how to register when the FARCs sign agreements with the South American governments limiting the production of coca leaves ".
Fentanyl is in fact a synthetic drug, disconnected from the concept of cultivation of the base plant (as it happens for cocaine and heroin): the doses are realized in the basements and is therefore reproducible everywhere and to infinity.
2 milligrams of fentanyl,a lethal dose in most people.