14ymedio, Havana, May 10, 2025 — All residents of Sancti Spíritus know that the dangerous neighborhood of Kilo 12 is the place to buy the “chemical” (químico) in the city. What they did not know, which the police warned about in the official press on Saturday, is that it is also where this drug has been reinvented, through mixtures with other narcotics and medicines.
“We continue referring to it as a synthetic cannabinoid, because it is a synthetic drug whose effects are similar to cannabis, but now other substances are being added to it, such as carbamazepine and other benzodiazepines, in addition to anesthetic for animals and even formalin, fentanyl and phenobarbital,” Leidy Aragón, a captain of the Ministry of the Interior specialized in Toxicology, explained to the Sancti Spíritus newspaper Escambray.
Different forms of the chemical are sold in key points of Kilo 12, for those who can’t pay for cocaine or marijuana, explains Aragón, or for those who are now accustomed to the caliber of the “bombazo” with a high of up to 40 minutes. The most common is to buy a dose or “little paper” with an area of 0.5 cm2 impregnated with the substance, for a price of 200 to 300 pesos. It is even more expensive than in Havana.
So far this year, there have been five people prosecuted for drug trafficking – three for the chemical and two for sale of controlled medicines – a remarkable increase given that in the province only one case was detected in the first quarter of 2024.
Trying to make it last longer by increasing the dose is in vain, the police warn. It is useless and increases the risk of death
According to the captain, there have been “people hospitalized for an overdose.” The new chemical is more lethal than the conventional one, and Aragón estimates that it is up to 100 times stronger than marijuana. It can cause tachycardia, high blood pressure, resistance to antidotes and has a fixed duration. Trying to make it last longer by increasing the dose is in vain, the police warn. It is useless and increases the risk of death.
In Aragón’s opinion, the variations in chemical composition that are now occurring are the result of many attempts by the manufacturers to mask them. Each batch seized by the police is different from the others, she says. The most frequent form “now” is to find the chemical attached to paper, blank or printed, without the quality of the substance being altered in any way.
“We have seen the aggressive behavior that it provokes, as well as the disinhibition of people under its effects who have undressed in public and thought that was okay. I assure you, too, that we can detect and track it,”said Aragón.
One of her colleagues, Major Rolando Alonso, recently launched an operation in Kilo 12 that he had been preparing since late 2023
One of her colleagues, Major Rolando Alonso, recently launched an operation in Kilo 12 that he had been preparing since late 2023. He had been infiltrating agents among the youth in each neighborhood for months to detect the “secret drug route,” activating “corner wiretaps” and tracking traffickers and consumers.
Results: they found two traffickers, an accomplice/lover and “distributor” of one of them, countless consumers and several drivers who, without knowing it, brought the chemical from Havana. They were the “initiators,” Alonso calculates.
The drugs were carried in jewelry bags and spice packets that the woman was carrying when she was captured in 2024. At the time of her arrest she was carrying 405 wrappers – 11.33 grams – of which Escambray provides a photo. The policeman now asks the residents to inform him of “every rumor, every doubtful step, every bag that changes hands.”
There are many testimonies in the newspaper from former addicts. In recent months, both the press and official television have given the green light to works like this one – though not as detailed as this Saturday’s – that collect stories of “economic ruin and family isolation.”
The young woman lamented at great length about how the chemical destroyed her life and gave details about the personal consequences of addiction
One of the interviewees, identified with the false name of Ismael, reports that a “broken step” of Kilo 12 was – until Alonso’s operation – the meeting point for the sale of the chemical. The blackout helped conceal all transactions. After an overdose, the young man, apparently under 18 since he enrolled in university after the crisis, ended up “vomiting without stopping.”
Another, identified as Kenia, is now serving seven years in prison. The young woman lamented at great length about how the chemical destroyed her life and gave details about the personal consequences of addiction. Testimonies like hers, but with names and surnames, appeared recently in at least two televised programs about ex-addicts.
The police assure that the traffic and consumption of chemical is “under control” in Sancti Spíritus, an aging province, and attribute the rise to “the migration of our young people to drug-producing countries, social networks and contact with realities where drug consumption is legalized.” Controlled drugs are sold in networks, while chemicals, marijuana and cocaine are traded in person or over the phone. All this has “permeated the local mentality,” Lieutenant Colonel Iván Ruiz told Escambray.
“The drug that enters Sancti Spíritus today comes almost all from the capital of the country as part of interprovincial traffic, so we have tightened controls on the roads,” he added.
Now, the police are “preparing” owners of private businesses, a new focus of drug dealing in Kilo 12, says the official. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants where a recent operation called Nocturno was carried out against private premises and others are on the way. “The perpetrators are in provisional detention,” according to Ruiz.
When asked about the fate of the seized chemical shipments, Ruiz said that the provincial police keep them in custody until they are taken to a destination prepared by the Ministry of the Interior. Once there, the drugs are “totally incinerated” in front of several people. “It is even documented on video,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.