Magnets to hide cocaine pills and cocaine telepollo: this is how drugs are smuggled.
Police pressure is preventing drug dealers from carrying their merchandise and increasing long-distance trade.
BarcelonaThe drug has many names. On the street, "chabú" and "tina" are methamphetamines. The first name was given to Asians, and the second is more commonly used by Americans. However, it comes more from North Africa. It's a mixture of drugs with hashish and cola, a combination on the rise. Caffeine, ketamine, and pink food coloring. And nothing is difficult to find. It's not easy to shake hands, hiding the exchange from a snitch. Police pressure on the street, especially by plainclothes officers, has led to more and more exchanges taking place from a distance. Russia. The dealers attach a small magnet, difficult to see with the naked eye, to blinds, trash cans, and other metal objects; and it's all done with bitcoins. Shortly afterward, the customer receives a location, accompanied by a photograph with an arrow indicating the exact location of the drug.
![Recreation of a small bag attached with a magnet to a wastebasket.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 6000 4000"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Home deliveries
Less professionally, but employing a similar technique, the drug dealers who offer marijuana and cake in downtown Barcelona rarely carry the drugs on them. They hide them in the labyrinthine streets of Ciutat Vella, among construction sites, in parks, or under street furniture. They also limit themselves to accompanying a client to an apartment where they sell drugs or providing the location of a cannabis association. This complicates police work: officers must be able to witness the exchange and then pursue both the buyer and the seller, who is ultimately arrested. "The important thing is that whenever the police stop you, you're clean," says one dealer. They usually act in a coordinated manner: while one finds the buyer, the other accompanies them to another location, and another delivers the drugs.
The drug trade has also become popular in the Raval district. telechicken. They are delivery men who ride a scooter around the center of the Catalan capital delivering a chicken (a small bag of cocaine). Customers have also contacted us via instant messaging channels, including WhatsApp. Not long ago, a cocaine delivery man was caught telechicken. After searching and searching, the police finally found where he was carrying the merchandise: he had hidden it in the handlebars of his scooter. In the villages, according to various sources, the dynamic remains more traditional, with face-to-face meetings between dealers and customers.
Snorted drugs are also rife on the streets like never before. popper It's back in fashion, and some people even vape synthetic drugs. "They're looking for quick highs and lows, lasting 10 to 15 minutes," explains Mireia Ventura, head of analysis and international affairs at Energy Control, adding that this way they can better regulate the drugs entering their bodies.
Medications
The small bags sold on the street can be filled with the most popular drugs, such as cocaine, hashish, marijuana, or ecstasy. However, trafficking in medications such as Lyrica and Rivotril is also expanding. Both are anti-epileptic drugs that can only be purchased with a doctor's prescription, but traffickers have found a market opportunity. In fact, the bags they found wrapped between magnets contained medications inside. The dealers' profit margin is high, as they sell a Lyrica pill for three euros and a Rivotril pill for one euro.
These drugs have a very specific audience, according to police sources and traffickers, and they are young people who are primarily engaged in robbery. Why? These drugs tend to disinhibit inhibitions, raise adrenaline, and are taken to overcome fear before committing a violent street robbery. At the end of Rambla del Raval, for example, the trafficking of these drugs is very visible, with a third party with a prescription who picks them up at the pharmacy and then sells them playing a significant role. Furthermore, they are already being combined with other drugs, such as hashish, and new substances like karkubi have emerged.
