ABF Drug Haul
A quantity of liquid methamphetamine disguised in various packaging is put on display by Australian Border Force officers at the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Sydney, February 15, 2016. Reuters/Jason Reed

The Australian Border Force warned on Monday about the entry in the country of W-18. It is a synthetic drug 100 times stronger than fentanyl, making it the world’s deadliest.

Besides the W-18, the synthetic drug has several derivatives with no name yet, chemical analogs only known as W, says Roman Quaedvlieg, head of Border Force. Known for giving its user a high similar to heroin, the drug has been linked to overdose cases in Scandinavia, China, Canada and the US, reports Tenplay.

As it is, the less-powerful fentanyl has caused 655 deaths in Canada between 2009 and 2014, while in two states, it has caused 500 deaths dues to overdose, reports Daily Mail.

The drug is in pill and powder form, called “beans” or “shady 80s” among street dealers. The user experiences a pain-killing effect upon taking W-18.

Quaedvlieg discloses that drug traffickers often ship it by splitting 500 kg of W-18 into 50 parcels of 10 kg each through air delivery which authorities often do not detect. A network then recollects all the parcels once it gets though, reconsolidate it for wholesalers and retailers.

The parcels are sent to parcel lockers, share houses, vacant lots and flat, and the syndicate often hires young Chinese students, paying them $100 or $200 to collect the parcel while someone would pick it up from them. The students may or may not be aware of its contents.

Since the drug was discovered only in 2014, authorities have no way to test the presence of W-18 in the bloodstream. Quaedvlieg also adds that bigger danger is still from the proliferation of meth coming from Southeast Asia.

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Source: Vice