Powerful synthetic drugs are sold via the Internet, available almost at the click of a button, and can be ordered without major obstacles in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
Experts for Detektor Magazine warn that the online sale of these drugs opens up a whole new challenge for police agencies, customs and courier services, and even the smallest amounts can have deadly consequences.
In April 2026, Detektor published research that showed the alarming ease of obtaining the drug, which is already claiming victims in Europe.
Detektor journalists introduced themselves as buyers. Over the course of several weeks, they made contact with sellers who offer these drugs online. An entire sales network that functions almost openly.
In direct communication, sellers without hesitation offered to send drugs to the countries of the region, claiming that they use standard courier services and that the shipments arrive in just a few days.
Stronger than heroin
These are substances from the nitazene group whose strength is many times higher than already known opiates. Some of their variants can be up to 40 times stronger than fentanyl, and even 500 times stronger than heroin.
Amer Mulić, inspector of the Department for the fight against the abuse of narcotic drugs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sarajevo Canton, explains that synthetic substances, specifically the nitazene group, are what drug addicts resort to, of which there are fewer and fewer in Sarajevo.
– Heroin used to be a real scourge and danger. Today, in the last five or six years, I can say that it is negligible. Those addicts are registered today and they are receiving replacement therapy. Their health is taken care of and they receive approved medical narcotics as replacement therapy. Ninety percent of addicts in the area of Sarajevo Canton are taken care of in this way – says Mulić.
He says synthetic drugs can be resorted to by heorin addicts who don’t have access to controlled legal doses of drugs like methadone.
– People on the illegal market in the People’s Republic of China came up with the idea to fill the gap with heroin from Afghanistan. (…) If you give an addict nitazene and he doesn’t know what it is, he will take it the way he took heroin, and he will die. This happens in Ireland and Great Britain, but we still don’t have it – says Mulić.
However, he states that in communication with colleagues from the region, he learned that there is “fertile ground” and that there have been cases of confiscation, which has not been recorded in Sarajevo Canton and the rest of 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 are keeping a close eye on suspicious shipments arriving from China.
Rasema Okić, director of the Sarajevo Canton Institute for Addiction Diseases, where addicts receive the therapy described by Mulić, tells Detektor Magazin that it often happens that when one drug leaves the market, another appears.
– Nowadays, mostly the ‘new’ copies the ‘old’, that is, they resort to synthesizing or creating intoxicants in illegal laboratories (…) In this case, they are fentinyl and nitazene – says Okić.
The Addiction Epidemic
It recalls the epidemic of synthetic drug addiction in the United States, recalling footage of people moving like zombies. These drugs are usually “white, yellow or light brown powder”.
– What is particularly scary to me is that it also comes in vaping liquids, so it is very tempting for young people – says Okić, who adds that another problem with fentanyl and nitazenes is that users often do not really know what they are taking, and neither do sellers know what they are selling.
Fatalities are not rare, says Okić, and black statistics are noticeable in some European countries.
– In 2024, 333 deaths from nitazene were recorded there. So almost every day one Briton dies from it, mostly young people. Estonia and Lithuania are also high-risk, there is a high availability and a large number of deaths – concludes Okić.
Nitazenis can be ordered through applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp and ads in the region. Delivery of the drug is carried out, by agreement with the seller, via international and local courier services.
Rugero Skaturo, senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, describes a problem for police that occurs during trasporto.
– This is the trade in substances that travel in extremely small quantities. The fact is that they are very small and can be hidden in any postal package, so it seems like looking for a needle in a haystack. It is generally extremely difficult for the police to detect large amounts of nitazene – says Skaturo.
Outdated understanding
He adds that police agencies in the Balkans also have a problematic and outdated understanding of drugs, and that a paradigm shift in thinking is needed to tackle new challenges.
And these challenges are also reflected in the ease of access to sellers. In addition to the fact that they are available through apps and public ads, the distance from the customer allows them to have less worry about possible trouble with the police. Conor Plunkett, a researcher and one of the authors of the story about nitazenes published by the media company Bellingcat, had the opportunity to learn about it first hand.
– What struck me the most was how insolent those sellers were. I mean, they didn’t hide their operations like you might expect from a drug dealer. They advertised openly on the Internet. They feel as if they are removed from legal consequences because European and American police are the ones who are looking for them the most. And because they are in China, they obviously feel safe that they will not be extradited – says Plunkett.
Although companies such as DHL and FedEx state that they have security measures in place and cooperate with the police and customs, they emphasize that the control of shipments is primarily the responsibility of state authorities. DHL’s response highlights various measures to keep its network secure and inaccessible for the transport of any illicit substances. FedEx claims that they do not tolerate the use of the network for illegal purposes and that they have strong security procedures.
Serbian Halo Ads were also used to trade nitazenes. In their response to Detektor, they state their list of over 170 keywords and terms that may refer to illegal substances and automatically block ads based on them.
– We react to every report that points us to inappropriate or illegal content and, after checking, we remove such ads without delay – the Serbian company stated, it says Avaz
