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Items found by police in a raid that uncovered the deadly opioid known as W-18 in Delta, B.C.

An analysis of drugs seized from a clandestine lab in B.C. has turned up W-18, a little-known synthetic compound whose entrance into the illicit market has health officials troubled.

An investigation by Delta Police into a local dial-a-dope operation led officers to three residences in Burnaby, Richmond and Surrey, where they executed search warrants in mid-March. In a Burnaby apartment, investigators discovered an illegal lab they believe has processed more illicit fentanyl products than any other location in B.C.

An ongoing analysis of the drugs has confirmed the presence of at least 80 grams of W-18, acting Sergeant Sarah Swallow of Delta Police said on Tuesday. It was in both pill and powder form, dyed and even scented to resemble oxycodone and heroin.

"What these people were doing was making this counterfeit heroin, using the fentanyl and the W-18, and they were selling it at both the kilogram level and in street-level quantities," Sgt. Swallow said. Investigators seized a hydraulic press used to make kilogram bricks.

Fentanyl, the subject of a recent Globe investigation, has been detected in a growing number of overdoses involving illicit drugs, putting health authorities across North America on alert. In the first three months of this year, the powerful synthetic opioid was detected in half of all illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C.

What is particularly troubling about W-18 is that health officials know little about it. The drug was developed and patented in Canada in the mid-1980s for its analgesic properties, but never marketed commercially. Beginning late last year, small amounts of it turned up in the Edmonton area, then Kelowna, and now Metro Vancouver.

A man who died of an overdose in South Calgary in March is believed to be the first confirmed case of a death related to W-18 in Western Canada. (He also had 3-Methylfentanyl, a drug chemically similar to fentanyl, in his system.)

Health Canada made W-18 illegal last week.

Despite Health Canada bulletins describing W-18 as a synthetic opioid up to "100 times stronger than fentanyl," health officials say so little research has been done on it that it is not yet known whether it is in fact an opioid – or whether naloxone, hailed as a life-saving tool in reversing overdoses from drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, can counter its effects.

"We don't know if W-18 is binding to the same receptors in the brain that opioids such has heroin, morphine et cetera, and opioid antagonists, such as naloxone, bind to," Ashraf Amlani, a harm-reduction epidemiologist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, told The Globe and Mail in an earlier interview.

The conscientious drug user might be troubled by the crude setup of the Burnaby lab in a kitchen. Police photographs show recipes scribbled on yellow Post-It notes stuck to cabinets. Drug cocktails were apparently blended in single-serving blenders, leaving plenty of room for dosage errors. (An amount of fentanyl about the size of two grains of salt can kill a healthy adult.)

"That's where we're seeing the hot-spot problems, because if you've ever blended a shake in one of those things, you know you get halfway through it and get a big chunk of banana," Sgt. Swallow said. "That's what's happening with [fentanyl and W-18]. They're blending these powders together, but it's not always blended evenly through the mix."

Investigators also seized $1.5-million in cash, ammunition and what Sgt. Swallow called a "smorgasbord" of cocaine, heroin and oxycodone. DVDs discovered included the titles Fighting with Firearms and Advanced Fighting with Firearms, while reading materials included the book I am The Market: How to Smuggle Cocaine by the Ton and Live Happily.

Five people have been arrested in connection with the investigation.

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