This post is also available in:
In April 2026, Detektor published an investigation into the availability of a synthetic drug that is already claiming victims in Europe.
Introducing themselves as buyers, Detektor’s journalists spent several weeks getting in touch with sellers who are offering these drugs to buyers on the internet – a network that operates almost openly.
In direct communication, the sellers unhesitatingly offered to send drugs to countries around the region, claiming that they use standard courier services and that shipments arrive within days.
The substances being sold are from the nitazene group, which are several times more potent than better-known substances. Some of its variants can be up to 40 times stronger than fentanyl, and even 500 times stronger than heroin.
Amer Mulic, an inspector at the Department for Combating Drug Abuse at Sarajevo Canton’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, explained that synthetic substances and drugs from the nitazene group are being taken drug users because of shortages of other narcotics in Sarajevo.
“Heroin used to be a real plague and a danger. Now, in the last five or six years, I can say that it’s negligible. Those addicts are now registered and they’re receiving replacement therapy. Their health is being taken care of, and they get medical narcotics that are approved as replacement therapy. Ninety per cent of addicts in the Sarajevo Canton area are looked after in this way,” said Mulic.
He explained however that heroin addicts who do not have access to controlled legal doses of drugs like methadone can resort to synthetic drugs.
“People on the illegal market in the People’s Republic of China have figured out how to fill the gap left by [the absence of] heroin from Afghanistan … If you give an addict nitazene and he doesn’t know what it is, he will take it in the same way he was taking heroin, and he will die. This is happening in Ireland and Great Britain, but we still don’t have that here,” said Mulic.
However, he noted that while talking with fellow officials around the region, he has learned that “fertile ground” now exists for nitazene sales, and that there have been cases of seizures, although none have been recorded so far in the Sarajevo Canton or elsewhere in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Police Administration of Montenegro states that, so far they have not registered the presence of nitazene on their territory, but that, in cooperation with international partners, they closely monitor suspicious shipments arriving from China.
Rasema Okic, director of the Institute for Addiction Diseases of the Sarajevo Canton, where addicts receive the kind of therapy described by Mulic, told Detektor Magazine that it’s often the case that when one drug disappears from the market, another appears.
“These days, the ‘new’ is mostly copying the ‘old’, meaning that they’re synthesizing or creating substances in illegal laboratories … In this case, it’s fentanyl and nitazenes,” Okic stated.
She recalled the epidemic of synthetic drug addiction in the United States, citing video footage of people walking around like zombies. Such drugs are usually white, yellow or light brown powders, she said.
“What is particularly frightening to me is that it also comes in vape liquids, making it very appealing to young people,” said Okic.
Another problem with fentanyl and nitazenes is that users often don’t actually know what they are taking, she added – and sellers don’t know what they’re selling either.
Official statistics from some European countries have registered deaths from such synthetic drugs, according to Okic.
“In 2024, 333 cases of deaths from nitazene were recorded there. Almost every day one British person dies from it, mostly young people. Estonia and Lithuania are also high-risk, with high availability and a large number of deaths,” asserted Okic.
Nitazenes can be ordered through applications like Telegram and WhatsApp, via online advertisements in the region. On agreement with the seller, the drugs’ delivery is carried out via global and domestic courier services.
Messeges exchange with the seller. Photo: Detektor
Ruggero Scaturro, a senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, outlined the problem for the police caused by these delivery methods.
“This is trafficking in substances that travel in extremely small quantities. The fact is that they are very small and can be concealed in any postal parcel, so it looks like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s extremely difficult for the police in general to detect large quantities of nitazene,” said Scaturro.
He added that police agencies in the Balkans also have a problematic, outdated understanding of drugs and that a change in thinking is needed in order to come to grips with new challenges.
These challenges are also evident how easy it is to get access to the sellers. As well as being available through applications and via online advertisements, the distance at which sellers operate from buyers makes them less concerned about having any problems with the police. Connor Plunkett, a researcher and one of the authors of a report about nitazenes published by media outlet Bellingcat, has experienced this first-hand.
“What struck me the most was how brazen these sellers have been. I mean, they were not hiding their operations the way you might be expecting from a drug trafficker. They openly advertised on the internet. They feel like they are distant from legal repercussions because it is European and American law enforcement who are going after them the strongest. And because they are in China, they obviously feel safe that they are not going to be extradited,” said Plunkett.
Although companies like DHL and FedEx state that they have security measures and cooperate with the police and customs, they emphasise that control over postal shipments primarily rests with state authorities. DHL cited various measures it uses to keep its network secure and prevent the transportation of any prohibited substances. FedEx insisted that it does not tolerate the use of its network for illegal purposes and said that it has strong security procedures.
In Serbia, Halo Ads advertisements have also been used for trading in nitazenes. In response to Detektor’s inquiry, the Halo Ads company provided a list of over 170 keywords and terms that may indicate illegal substances; based on the incidence of these, the company automatically blocks ads.
“We respond to every report that points out inappropriate or illegal content and, after verification, we remove such ads without delay,” the company stated.