Italy seizes 6.3 tons of 'chemical precursors' coming from China

ROME/ISTANBUL

Italy seized more than 6 metric tons (6.6 US tons) of chemical precursors coming from China which could have been used to produce illegal drugs worth €630 million ($678 million), Italian officials said Monday.

The seized substances were enough to produce more than 63 million MDMA pills, a quantity with the potential to “inundate” the synthetic drug market in Europe, Italian customs officials said.

An Italian entrepreneur from Milan was placed under investigation and two Chinese nationals in the Netherlands were arrested under the investigation.

However, Beijing said Monday that it is "firmly committed to combating drug-related crimes," state media reported.

"I am not aware of the specific situation you mentioned. As a matter of principle ... China is willing to engage in international cooperation on this matter,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing when asked about the seizure.

Europe is reinforcing and adapting its fight against producers and traffickers, including of precursors, of illegal synthetic drugs, amid rising fears that synthetic opioids and other drugs may further spread across the continent.

In particular, Europe worries that heroin consumers could turn to synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2022.

Precursors of such drugs are often illegally imported from China, which is a major producer of these substances, and used in European illegal laboratories to produce synthetic drugs.

In this case, Italian customs officials seized the illegal substances at Milan’s airport during an inspection of goods.

What was classified as polyester powder coating turned out to be PMK, which is a precursor product of MDMA.

The illegal substance was supposed to pass through Milan and then be shipped to the Netherlands.

In collaboration with Dutch police, Italian authorities also seized 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of ketamine, 40 kg (88.2 lb) of marijuana, and minor quantities of other drugs, as part of an investigation coordinated by Eurojust, EU's judicial cooperation agency.