The Doomsday Drug: Fentanyl
Fentanyl and Ohmefentanyl
Fentanyl was recently in the news following a major operation carried out by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence along with a team from the Defence Research and Development Establishment, which busted an illegal laboratory at Indore. The quantity seized is reported to be about 9 kg worth about Rs. 110 crores.
The lab was being used by a 'US-hating' PhD scholar and a Mexican national to make a chemical capable of killing at least 5,00,000 people.
Now, what is fentanyl? Fentanyl, also called "Doomsday drug", is an opioid used as a painkiller, and together with other medications for anaesthesia. Chemically, it is N-(1-phenethyl-4-piperidyl) propionanilide. One of the intermediate chemical used in making Fentanyl is 4 ANPP which has probably been smuggled from China by this unauthorised laboratory in Indore.
Fentanyl is between 50 and 80 times more potent than heroin and even inhaling its particles can be fatal. It is also used as a recreational drug, often mixed with heroin or cocaine. It is used by injection, as a patch on the skin, as a nasal spray, or in the mouth. Over 200 people died in US in 2016 due to overdose of Fentanyl.
This deadly drug is also used as a chemical weapon. The purpose behind manufacturing Fentanyl is being investigated. Considering that DRI was able to thwart the manufacture of this drug in India, this was a major operation and seizure by the agency.
Highly concentrated “Ohmefentanyl" powder more powerful than commercially available
Fentanyl, which is itself 50 to 80 times more powerful than heroin, was sprinkled on the cockpit controls of the C-130, that was used to transport Zia, and that caused the crash. (Various sources – unconfirmed). Its chemical structure, and its relative potency which is about 126 times the potency of ordinary Fentanyl in its most potent form, is available on both Wikipedia and various sources on the internet. The density of Ohmefentanyl is actually 1.1±0.1 g/cm 3. However literary licence has been used to show its density as around 0.56 g/cm 3. This is to show that it is easily transportable by human porters.
Taking the above as given, let is see what can happen if:
1. A plot is hatched to poison India's two major rivers the Ganges and the Yamuna with a couple of tons of Ohmfentanyl.
2. The drug is to be manufactured in Chhapari in Nepal on the edge of its western border with India in Darchula District and very close to Dharchula the Indian town across the border that will act as a staging post before it is smuggled to the sources of the two great rivers where it is to be tipped into their waters just a winter approaches at the end of October.
The aim is that with the melting of the snow in March the poison will flow down and destroy all towns and Delhi in particular with all its ciitizens from the lowliest to its high and mighty.
Since the poison if traced can only be traced to Chhapari in Nepal, other parties who may be involved, will continue to stay out of the limelight. And no nuclear bombs are involved.
These two factors ensure plausiible deniability. That is the conspiracy that is detailed in "Not a Drop to Drink"
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