According to the dictionary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, the definition of heroine can be: "A person distinguished by their great courage, by their fortitude in suffering. The main character of a legend, a story, etc." But also: "A diacetyl derivative of morphine, with the formula C₂₁H₂₃NO₅"...from which it is obtained by treating it with acetic anhydride, and whose consumption creates dependence."

"We're going crazy," says a National Police commander, expressing the increasing difficulty of pursuing drug cartels. In a globalized and ever-changing world, drug trafficking also transcends borders and constantly innovates in the ways it extends its reach. Traditionally, heroin has arrived in powder form or in bulk from Afghanistan—estimated to supply 80% of the world's opiate users—via a land route through Turkey. But all this is changing, as demonstrated by the latest discovery in Madrid. For the first time, heroin in pill form has been found in Europe and the world, originating from Colombia. This Friday, the National Police reported the seizure of eight kilos of heroin divided into thousands of pills and the arrest of five people in a parking lot of a shopping center in southern Madrid. It's a new and pioneering format: heroin pills must be diluted before injection, which is how the drug is usually consumed. This format is simply a "marketing strategy," explains Alberto Morales, chief commissioner of the Central Narcotics Brigade of the Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO). This format is designed to "attract a young audience." Furthermore, the pills featured a skull graphic, which is also a marketing tactic, to remind them of brands that use this logo, such as a popular clothing chain. It was all part of a market study, a kind of test, to see how the public would receive this new format. And some of the intended recipients were Catalans: in the wiretapped phone conversations, those under investigation admitted that one of the drug's destinations was Barcelona. Once on the street, each pill would have been worth between eight and ten euros.

It all starts when someone lets their tongue slip. The information is that a ton of hashish is in a house in Ametlla de Mar, in Baix Ebre. "You have to drop everything and run," explains a police officer. It's already nighttime when they arrive at the residential area, where silence reigns. The patrol cars are stealthily fanning out across the area when, suddenly, a van speeds off. "I'm asking two officers to arrest him," continues the person in charge of the operation. But the traffickers didn't stop and rammed the officers. "Drug traffickers aren't afraid," he adds. The police officers were injured, but the drug traffickers were eventually arrested. They were carrying 800 kilograms of hashish, which they protected with a submachine gun and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. Inside the van, which they had stolen in the Netherlands and disguised with false license plates, were jammers, beacon detectors, and night vision goggles. They had unloaded the drugs just hours before in a hidden cove in the Ebro Delta and were beginning the road transport phase. Catalonia was just another stop on the hashish's long journey, and the traffickers were ready to, if necessary, open fire on anyone who stood in their way.