No gift, but potentially lethal content
One week ago, while inspecting an express delivery parcel from Kosovo and destined to Hancock County, ME, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Philadelphia discovered costume jewellery, textile fabric, along with 2,055 alprazolam pills and 2,000 clonazepam pills covered in wrapping paper.
Known by their common name Xanax and Klonopin, alprazolam and clonazepam are scheduled IV controlled substances, used to treat anxiety and panic disorders and legally only available through a prescription.
Joseph Martella, CBP area port director: "Prescription drug abusers who purchase pharmaceuticals through the international marketplace take on the added risk of purchasing potentially counterfeit or contaminated medicines, or even worse, medicines laced with fentanyl that could kill them."
Read other news from the Balkans in the geographic focus of our current issue, ITJ 13-14/2023. (ah)