DRUG FACTORIES BECOME BRITAIN'S NEW ILLEGAL COTTAGE INDUSTRY

POLICE CHIEFS are warning of a flood of new synthetic drugs - including
super-strong ecstasy, fake Prozac and Viagra - both manufactured in Britain
and imported from illegal "factories" abroad.

A survey by the international police association Interpol has found record
numbers of illegal laboratories being set up throughout Europe, producing
ever increasing quantities of synthetic drugs. In Britain, at least 22
illicit drug factories manufacturing amphetamines, ecstasy, and the
anaesthetic GHB, have been discovered in the past three years.

Vincent Harvey, director of United Kingdom operations at the National
Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), has also warned of new types of
chemical stimulants being sold by dealers in Britain. Traffickers are
increasingly manufacturing and buying up stocks of Prozac and Viagra to sell
in nightclubs along with ecstasy tablets.

He told a national drugs conference in Blackpool last week that the abuse of
the two new wonder "lifestyle" drugs, was extremely dangerous and one of the
most significant recent trends. "We have know for some time of ecstasy users
supplementing the drug with Prozac to enhance the effects. Drugs dealers are
seeking supplies of legitimate drugs such as Prozac and Viagra or even
attempting to manufacture them for themselves," he said.

"Of course such combinations could easily have unexpected results as
different outcomes are combined. As users look for particular effects, they
are increasingly attracted to designer variants of legitimate drugs."

The attempted manufacture of copies of the anti-depressant drug Prozac and
the impotence remedy Viagra are part of a boom in designer synthetic drugs
being used by clubbers. Viagra is sold in clubs to be used along with
ecstasy, the side-effects of which can include the diminishing of sexual
abilities. Prozac is supposed to counter-balance the depression and "down"
people feel after taking stimulants, although this is a sales trick, because
it takes several weeks to work.

Mr Harvey added that thanks to the Internet, "criminals in Europe can order
tons of chemicals from anywhere in the world". He added: "We have
established that some UK criminals travel the world to source the chemicals,
the popular destinations at present include China, the Russian Federation
and throughout most of Eastern Europe. Most individual purchases are
entirely legal."

He highlighted a publication available on the Internet that provides recipes
for 179 ecstasy type drugs. Most could be made with "anybody with an A-level
in chemistry", he said.

Europol has also discovered that ethnic Chinese criminal gangs - known as
Triads - from Hong Kong but now based in the European Union, were switching
some of their trade from the trafficking of heroin from South-east Asia to
the production of ecstasy for Europe.

Jurgen Storbeck, the acting director of Europol, said that illicit
laboratories making synthetic drugs, particularly amphetamines, have been
found in most member states. "Some had a capacity of producing up to a
million pills a day, some were mobile, whilst others were abandoned every
few weeks to avoid detection. This type of large-scale production is
controlled by organised crime," he said.

The number of seizures of amphetamines in the UK in 1997 reached a record
18,600, more than six times greater than in 1987.

Mr Harvey also disclosed that earlier this year NCIS made the first
commercial seizure in the UK of a drug called DOB or "golden eagle", an
ecstasy substitute reputed to be 33 times stronger than normal doses of the
drug.

In February, the service found 800,000 tablets hidden in fibreboard that had
been sent from the Netherlands. Last December, a further 350,000 tablets
believed to be destined for the UK were seized in France. A nationwide alert
has been issued on the use of DOB along with a series of ecstasy-type drugs
now being manufactured.

Another drug, 2CB, also known as nexus, spectrum or bromo, is related to
ecstasy and is becoming increasingly popular at festivals and out-door
raves.