Grim reality fentanyl has created in NYC’s party scene

Metro

To Craig McCarthy

Jul 14, 2023 | 5:12pm

Inside a hip cocktail bar on the Lower East Side, late on a recent Saturday night, young partygoers lined up outside the bathroom as punk music blared.

Then one of the employees at a local restaurant interrupted the noise and warned, “If anyone is using drugs tonight, use it safely and get tested!”

This has become a disturbing new reality both inside and outside New York City’s party scene, thanks to the synthetic opioid fentanyl. person in charge With about 150 overdose deaths per day in the United States, the drug has permeated nearly every aspect of the illicit drug market, upsetting unsuspecting users and their families.

“I’m surprised more people don’t know that fentanyl is definitely in the cocaine supply,” Bridget Brennan, New York City’s special prosecutor for narcotics, said in an interview.

Because of their potency, cheap lab-made drugs are often mixed with other illicit drugs, heroin, methamphetamine, and even cocaine. It is also compressed into tablets made to resemble other pharmaceutical opioids and benzodiazepines.

The epidemic is creating suffering that cuts across all demographics, killing people on the streets, killing the middle class and wealthy celebrities alike. Among them is Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, the grandson of famous actor Robert De Niro, who was found dead of an overdose in a hospital. Earlier this month, 19 people died from suspected drugs, including fentanyl, allegedly sold to him by a 20-year-old dealer known as “Percocet Princess.”

“People will say, ‘Don’t worry, I got it from my boyfriend.’ But anyone can die from a bad drug,” said Darryl Phillips, founder of a nonprofit that distributes fentanyl test strips. 48) said.

“Demi Lovato, Lil Peep, Mac Miller. They paid top dollar and it doesn’t get any safer.”

Post Malone’s friend, rapper Lil Peep, Died in 2017 from taking Xanax with fentanyl. The following year, another rapper, Miller, Died from fentanyl in lethal doses of cocaine.Lovato almost died in the same year From similar cocktails.

Law enforcement and public health officials have warned about fentanyl for years. However, the number of fatal overdoses associated with deadly opioids continues to reach record levels.

There were 102,429 drug-related deaths in the United States last year, most of them from fentanyl.

Spurring the tainted drug deluge are the children of notorious Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, who have taken over the reins of his brutal Sinaloa Cartel. , and the so-called New Generation Jalisco Cartel. America.

Through the use of social media, encrypted texting apps and cheap technology, cartels are turning the drug trade into a whack-a-mole crackdown game, creating new challenges for law enforcement to disrupt the flow. .

But for people like Phillips, the latest phase of the drug war isn’t about making a quick profit, they’re just sick of watching their friends die.

How Fentanyl Began to Increase Supply:

Fentanyl has become a favorite of cartels as a cheap, lethal alternative severing agent to boost drug potency and increase profits.

Interviews with federal and local law enforcement officials, as well as public testimony and a review of reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, show how this deadly drug fell into the hands of American everyday users and partygoers. , it becomes clear how this transaction developed.

Fentanyl, a fast-acting pain reliever that is 50-100 times more potent than morphine, began entering the pharmaceutical market in 2013.

DEA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within two years issued a rare national alert It said fentanyl poses a “significant threat to public health and safety” because synthetic opioids contribute to “an alarming rate” of drug deaths.

The cartels began by buying wholesale fentanyl with varying levels of potency and mixing the drug in a lab so that a kilogram of other drugs could be scaled up to a dozen or so.

In the years that followed, the Sinaloa crew and New Generation Jalisco, aka Jalisco Nueva Generation or CJNG, the major drug suppliers in the New York area, purchased chemicals from China and India to make their own fentanyl. I learned to manufacture. began smuggling powders and compressed tablets into the United States.

The cartels found that the easy production of fentanyl as part of their criminal enterprise was far more cost-effective than the cultivation, harvesting and processing of heroin.

A few kilograms of fentanyl fetch about $6,000 south of the border, but fetch between $30,000 and $35,000 by the time it reaches New York City. Fentanyl tablets are manufactured in Mexico for about 10 cents and sold in the Big Apple for between $10 and $30.

“Cartels are taking advantage…they are taking advantage of our addiction, taking advantage of the drug use addiction disorder problem here in the US to make more money,” DEA’s New York Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said. Split.

“If we can get more people addicted, we can get more people to buy our product and make more money.”

When the federal government sounded the alarm in 2014, 3,334 of drug incidents (meaning substances seized and sent to laboratories involving involvement in overdoses) tested positive for fentanyl. By 2021, That number surged to 153,949.

Officials say most of the increase has been linked to the influx of synthetics as party drugs, including cocaine and nearly all street drugs, including trace amounts of fentanyl.

“It’s devastating. It’s unprecedented,” Tarentino said. “I have never seen such devastation in our country in relation to illegal drugs.”

From Mexico to New York: Tracking the Flow of Fentanyl

The fentanyl trafficking of the past decade has become much more “diversified” as Mexican cartels streamline processes and find new ways to transport illegal drugs across the United States.

Shipments originate in the state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico and travel to Tijuana, just south of the California border, where smugglers prepare the shipments, sometimes shoving them into concealment compartments or hiding them in fruit or fruit crates. Sometimes. vegetable.

Upon arrival in the United States, packages are routed through exchanges at truck stops in New Jersey or driven directly by local distributors, often in the Bronx, to reach the city. Cars with out-of-state license plates are increasingly bringing several kilos of fentanyl into the city in powder or tablet form.

“They’re mostly from the West Coast, California, and they seem to be traveling overland to get those packages into the city,” said New York City’s special counsel for narcotics, Mr. Brennan.

Another cartel tactic after the shipment arrives in the United States is to move the shipment from San Diego to storage in Los Angeles. From there, smugglers pack large household items such as ceiling fans in kilograms and mail them to locations in New York City across the United States.

When the parcel arrives in New York, members of the lower cartel collect it and then distribute it to local distributors.

“We know for sure that the Sinaloa Cartel is sending its members into the region to transport large amounts of drugs,” Tarentino said in a recent interview, adding that there are currently about 250 Sinaloa Cartels in the United States. We presume that the cartel members are active.

The special agent said the shipping process created difficulties for the federal government, and said it wasn’t a blind spot for the federal government.

“Without hints, clues, insider information, or prior knowledge that this package will be shipped, it’s difficult to identify the package,” Tarentino said.

“Otherwise you could shoot 100 packages out of Mexico with a shotgun, or you could shoot 100 packages out of anywhere. Maybe 98 would get through and 2 would be seized. he added. “Very cost effective.”

Cartels have also weaponized simple techniques for encrypting conversations, which pose a “huge problem” for the federal government in attracting new shipping prospects. In some cases, smugglers also equip packages with eavesdropping devices to monitor whether they are in the hands of law enforcement.

“Drug trafficking is really only limited by the trafficker’s imagination,” he says.

personal epidemic

Phillips, founder of the A$AP Foundation, wages a personal battle against cartels every day, taking new approaches to halting the spread of fentanyl-related deaths.

“I’m not saying don’t do drugs,” Phillips, 46, recently told the Post. “That’s not going to work. If someone is using it, be safe. Try it.”

The Post joined Mr. Phillips at LES to refill boxes of fentanyl test strips at more than six participating bars around Orchard Street, including some where bar patrons have been warned to do drug tests. During his stay, he received a warm welcome at each stop. .

“I’d rather have a bathroom drug test than overdose in the bathroom,” Phillips said.

The 375 Showroom, a high-end streetwear retailer that was interviewed by The Post and greeted by towering security guards, was the first place Phillips issued test strips in 2019.

“Almost everyone in these places knows someone who has died,” says Evan, one of the store’s managers, as he lays out about a dozen sweatshirts for a customer who’s expected a few rands of clothes. said.

Phillips’ diverse network in the area also includes businesses such as Instagram-favorite bars, luxury women’s clothing stores, art galleries and Mexican restaurants featured in the New York Times.

“I’m glad we have the kits here,” said Christian, who works at Scar’s Pizza on Orchard Street, as Phillips filled a shoebox-sized clear trash can with dozens of tests. .

“My friend just OD’d on Saturday,” he said from behind the counter.

“Did he survive?” Phillips asked.

“No… he’s dead.”