RCMP Bust Secret Quebec Lab, Seize Pills Potentially 25 Times More Powerful Than Fentanyl

The RCMP has dismantled a “clandestine” laboratory east of Montreal suspected of manufacturing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills thought to contain protonitazepyne, a synthetic opioid approximately 25 times more potent than fentanyl. Four people were arrested and “several hundred thousand counterfeit pills” were seized after a home in Drummondville, Que. was searched Aug. 1, the RCMP said in a press release. Officers also seized “significant quantities” of chemicals, one pill press, and sophisticated equipment used in the large-scale production of illicit pills. Three homes in Sherbrooke and Dixville were also searched, the RCMP said. The RCMP’s Federal Policing—Eastern Region Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit launched an investigation into the lab in May....