On the street, the drug is called “$5 insanity” because of its quick, cheap hit. Alternatively known as Flakka, it is at the forefront of a surge in Asian-made synthetic drugs that are inundating western nations.
The drug, created in illegal laboratories in China and responsible for a spate of US deaths, is a prodigious moneyspinner, generating a 32-fold return to traffickers with profits spread from Asia to Middle Eastern countries including Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
Despite a formal ban imposed by China in October following pressure from Western nations, the drug continues to flourish — last month prompting a grand jury in Florida to call for a special law to fight the scourge and attracting several far-reaching American investigations.
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