Flight RCs vendor arrested in Greece

Synthetic Noids made in Europe

The probably last vendor openly advertising to ship Synthetic Noids worldwide seems to have gotten busted.

An admin of their Telegram channels shared this information before going silent:

“I regret to inform you of an unexpected situation [..]. Flight has been arrested in relation to an incident mentioned in this article: https://hellas.postsen.com/business/510100/”
(The FRCS @ Telegram)

The newspaper article they referred to describes that the Greek police (ELAS) arrested a group of five (aged between 28 and 58) for allegedly manufacturing Synthetic Cannabinoids in a lab in the city centre of Thessaloniki, which they distributed via mail and courier services to European and American customers.

Authorities had started to investigate the group two months after eight packs of synthetic drugs shipped from Thessaloniki had been detected in Lithuania earlier this year. (I guess that was around February.)

The operation was a co-production of authorities from Lithuania and Greece, Europol, and the US DEA’s office in Athens (yes, the FBI and the DEA operate offices all over the world) and resulted in the seizure of 43 kilograms of Synthetic Noids in powder form, 6 litres of eLiquids (“C-Liquids”), as well as 126,000 Euros.

The Greek police (ELAS) are still investigating the case, hoping to unveil a cooperating network of criminal organizations.

The Flight RCs social media admin almost insinuated that the arrests would be a misunderstanding and announced that some of their operations might temporarily go under maintenance. Their shop displays a maintenance page saying, “We’ll be back soon!” and offers to contact them via Telegram.

BB forum, however, were the first ones to publish the story and urged not to contact the group to avoid falling for a possible police honeypot. A few platforms had quickly deleted the spots that Flight RCs used to advertise their products.

At first glance, it does not seem evident how Flight RCs could have violated the law to the extent that authorities decided to investigate and stop the group. To many, they appeared to be yet another NPS vendor.

Two days later, their Telegram account that had shared the update about the arrests was finally renamed “History”. Also, there is no more contact option available on their site anymore.

Anything Goes Mentality

Dutch police are observing a concerning development: More and more young people are involved in fraud and cybercrime. Ready-made tools available for little money allow for relatively easily engaging in criminal online activities. The police worries that these young people would start with fraud and cybercrime to make a quick buck that enables them to buy and trade drugs on a large scale and generating huge profits. https://nltimes.nl/2022/12/14/young-people-often-involved-fraud-cybercrime

Flight RCs have collected money for their business even by fundraising. F6S, a platform for connecting startups and investors, has Krasimir Chakarov asking to invest in Flight RCs. This account might have been created only to advertise the shop. Still, I thought it would be worth mentioning since it seems hilarious that the platform would accept a fundraiser for a supplier of Synthetic Cannabinoids.

The shop evolving: 2022 to 2023

Flight RCs started in 2022 with a relatively basic shop layout and offered mostly Synthetic Noids, Smoking Bends (Herbal Incense) and C-liquids (eLiquids added Synthetic Noids suitable for vaping pens).

In 2023, their new website welcomed you with an elaborate design and animations similar to TRC’s site. The shop now required an account and to log in to see their products. They also launched a forum.

The animation from their new 2023 shop’s welcome page:

I can see why many would assume this was yet another NPS shop. With their new shop design, they suddenly appeared to belonging to a group of long-established vendors.

The Synthetic Noids Issue

Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists are a substance group more or less mimicking the psychoactive effects of Cannabis. Like THC, Synthetic Noids bind to the cannabinoid receptors in the body. They had been first identified in 2008 in a so-called “Legal High” herbal smoking blend. It turned out that the effects did not stem from the exotic herbs in the bags but that the plants had been added/sprayed on Synthetic Noids.

Synthetic Noids are highly potent and have caused a large number of non-fatal poisonings and even deaths. These substances sometimes cause outbreaks of mass poisonings, especially in Russia and the USA: In 2014, in Russia, the Synthetic Noid MDMB-FUBINACA was linked to more than 600 poisonings, including 15 deaths within only two weeks. In 2015, more than 200 hospital emergencies related to a Synthetic Noid smoking blend (“Mocarz”) had been reported in Poland in less than a week. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/pods/synthetic-cannabinoids_en

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10247575/

Germany reported 9 drug-related deaths related to Synthetic Noids in 2020, following 11 fatalities in 2019 and that CBD Cannabis plants added Synthetic Noids are becoming a matter of concern. https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-864060

According to UNODC, Stimulants and Synthetic Noids cause the majority of NPS toxicology cases. These figures are not definite, the WHO relies on countries to submit reports. By far not every country sends reports to the WHO. Also, trying to detect traces of NPS or drugs in general in post-mortem cases is not necessarily a standard procedure. UNODC cannot exactly describe what is going on but their publications still provide an overview of current developments.

https://www.unodc.org/res/scientists/ewa/Current_NPS_Threats_VI.pdf

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/experte-warnt-vor-toedlichen-cannabinoiden-in-cannabis-100.html

Synthetic Noids produce effects that are nothing like those of the Cannabis plant. The omnipotent substances that have become available in recent years appeared to have become a thing of their own. They feel like an intoxication but are nonetheless surprisingly addictive and incredibly likely to trigger psychoses and other mental health issues.

A Cannabis plant contains dozens of substances, of which THC is the main ingredient producing psychoactive effects, but also contains CBD, which is considered to have anti-psychotic effects. Synthetic Noids lack this CBD pillow, making them a massive threat to users prone to psychoses.

https://www.drugcom.de/drogenlexikon/buchstabe-s/synthetische-cannabinoide/

China banned all Synthetic Noids

No later than in 2020, these substances designed to be more and more potent, less predictable, and very addictive had become a problem that asked for drastic measures to be taken.

The USA and a few other countries have decriminalized or legalized Cannabis for recreational use. Cannabis was, is and might remain the most popular drug.

For users of Synthetic Noids, however, Cannabis seems to produce underwhelming effects compared to what they are used to.

In 2021, China finally issued a total ban on all Synthetic Cannabinoids, and this substance group had become challenging to source basically over night. Almost all NPS are manufactured in China, so this was an essential step in eliminating that plague. https://www.unodc.org/LSS/Announcement/Details/ff032a29-2e14-4dab-b7d8-ab86d355c809.

Asian vendors try to bypass the Chinese ban by no longer offering psychoactive products but drug precursors that require profound knowledge in chemistry and accesss to lab equipment to turn these into psychoactive substances. That is nothing retail users could care for. Still, a new business model providing drug precursors and instructions aiming at vendors to manufacture their own psychoactive Synthetic Noids appears to be the latest fad.

A seemingly perfect business opportunity

Flight RCs was founded in 2022 because it seemed a promising and highly profitable business opportunity to manufacture Synthetic Noids directly in Europe. Flight RCs claimed to be the biggest supplier of Synthetic Noids. They served customers in Europe and the USA. I would not be aware of any other vendor daring to openly operate such a business.

Professional Marketing

Flight RCs seemed annoying, but they knew their stuff. They operated various Telegram groups and a Discord server in at least four languages in which full-time admins would ensure nobody would ever get away with posting complaints.

They used to send weekly newsletters offering discounts of up to a hundred (!) Euros.

Everything was streamlined: The admins and other team members created an information bubble in their gated communities that would glorify the vendor’s service and products day and night.

The way they presented themselves seemed over-the-top and kitschy but was streamlined (no surprises, no open discussion, and following a Cooperate Identity by, e.g., addressing everyone as “Flight RCs brothers”.

We all enjoy continuity; every professional company sticks to its corporate identity and follows communication guidelines. Only journalism and science sometimes provide food for thought and occasionally surprise you, hoping to make you reflect on things.

If you want to sell something, you do not wish to discuss your offer or even deal with complaints in public forums. Moderated (invite-only) information bubbles help boost sales.

Vendors’ forums all work like this. I recommend not blindly trusting in posts shared on, e.g., Reddit, either. All forums seem undermined by scammers, spammers, and dummy accounts to leave fake reviews (shilling), as I already pointed out here:

2-MMC

https://rc-scene.com/2023/2-mmc/comment-page-1/#comment-7313

Satellite sites for advertising

Some of you google for a shop’s reputation, hoping not to fall for scammers which is a good idea.

While you should always be sceptical when surfing the net, Flight RCs went a step further and even created seemingly independent blogs, including the apparent harm reduction topic blah blah, to provide you with more sites to be found via Google and with only one goal: Advertising Flight RCs.

LegitRCS.com was one of these satellite sites. It is almost a copy of RC SCENE pretending to be an independent blog pretending to offer fair shop reviews and also providing shop lists. Their shop list, of course, remained empty. Vendors do not like competition. Only scammers tend to pretend to offer unbiased lists of reliable vendors in which they mention a few real vendors together with their fraudulent scam sites.

Many faces of Flight RCs

Flight RCs’ communication was over the top and almost annoying, but their team was also interesting to discuss. An email in which they asked to buy advertising on RC SCENE was written in a friendly and sensible tone. I waived the money because of their focus on Synthetic Noids. Their owner took the time to send a nice reply explaining that he respects my decision and that he does not do Synthetic Noids himself.

If you ever wondered why many NPS vendors would annoyingly aggressively spam and advertise everywhere all the time, greed seems the obvious answer. But there is more to it: Most vendors source from very few wholesalers and must order large amounts for a decent price offer. Although the profit margins in drug trafficking are second to none, new vendors with comparable small budgets feel pressure to find customers for the kilos of drugs they have stocked up.

In Flight RCs Telegram groups, you could observe alleged customers praising the vendor and often find accounts describing how ordering and re-selling Synthetic Noids had made them rich.

Their communication style in Social Media was kind of a show to boost sales. Talking to them in private, off their social media accounts, was always friendly.

Generous Sponsors

Flight RCs were not mentioned on RC SCENE because they focused on distributing synthetic noids, which I consider sheer poison and don’t want to make a topic here. Same with opiates. These are hazardous drugs that nobody ever could handle. Synthetic Noids are designed to create addicts to push sales. It’s a cynical business.

Synthetic Noids sell like fresh bread, and suppliers spend a lot of money to advertise on various platforms.

RC SCENE is not a self-proclaimed harm reduction site. I lack the medical/scientific background, and there are already plenty of outlets in which fent addicts tap each other’s shoulders for sticking to sometimes seemingly random harm reduction practice, which they falsely claim would enable them to handle a hard drug and save them from biting the dust too soon. We all remember that Captain Heroin, a seemingly popular and well-known harm reductionist, overdosed recently.

I tried Noids myself, and although I could clearly feel how much damage they caused and how awkward they felt, I would still do them repeatedly. It took a while before I quit them forever and decided not to touch any Noid ever again.

Generally speaking, smoking and/or vaping say inhaling toxic waste is never a good idea. It had not been easy to quit smoking cigarettes either. I didn’t even enjoy cigarettes; I started out of boredom and curiosity and could not believe that, for months, I would spend money on cigarette packs.

Inhaling toxic waste in the form of cigarettes gives you cancer. That has been proven to be accurate; there is nothing to discuss. With NPS, vaping is even more dangerous because a random lab in a flat in Thessaloniki might not have what it takes to manufacture a clean product.

A friend in our Telegram group shared photos showing how Flight RCs NEP would turn greenish if exposed to heat. The vendor later explained that it was a new NEP recipe and, therefore, different. The community agreed that their NEP is a shitty substance and to avoid. We never found out what the greenish colour caused; it was probably an impurity.

K2 Sheets, a concerning product offer

Flight RCs also offered so-called K2 sheets. This is regular copy paper that was drowned in Synthetic Noids. These sheets are intended for smoking.

Who would try to smoke a sheet of paper? Prison inmates!

K2 sheets have become a concerning problem in prisons everywhere and often cause acute intoxication. While I knew that organized crime is smuggling such Synthetic Noids sheets into US prisons and is a growing problem, I was surprised to learn that K2 sheets also had become an issue in Germany and Austria. I had been talking to, among others, a hospital doctor whom I remember especially sad when sharing his experiences with this problem in a nearby prison.

Prison inmates would try anything to get stoned and pass out. Being imprisoned must be terrible. The violence, the restrictions, the narrowness, the boredom. A former inmate once asked me to assist him in operating a trading platform specially designed for prison inmates and their friends and relatives, providing almost undetectable NPS, foremost Noids and Dissos, easy to smuggle in.

I assume prison is hell, but I was disappointed that former inmates would think in supply and demand and make plans to smuggle drugs into prisons.

A sheet of 2K paper does not look suspicious at all. You cannot tell a Synthetic Noids Sheet from a regular letter. Smoking such a piece is a last resort to evading reality. It’s not helping anyone. Things will only get worse.

Flight RCs had not been the only ones offering to ship K2 sheets. You can easily find similar vendors with many 5-star reviews on Trustpilot. I, however, associate such products foremost with criminal gangs and violence. The FBI estimates about 30,000 street, motorcycle, and prison gangs in the US today and describes these as all using violence to control neighbourhoods. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/gangs

A US vendor once shared that he feared that a gang might be forcing him to work for them. Flight RCs did not seem to bother supplying whoever with these prison drugs.

Ongoing Investigations

Flight RCs was a well-planned and well-funded project. Their aggressive advertising and unusual communication to me seemed like a show designed by a team with profound knowledge in marketing.

I would not know if a team of five (that got arrested) could have run such an operation.

Drawing attention

I first discovered Flight RCs when they started spamming our Telegram group.

Some of you found the seemingly poor quality of their NEP product concerning, had it tested, and discussed it with the vendor. Turned out it was a different recipe that caused severe adverse side effects.

Some approached me asking to warn against this vendor, but I didn’t want to involuntarily make them even more popular and decided not to mention them anywhere.

The vendor had already experienced issues with mail carriers, and soon after they had started spamming (and became a running joke) in our group, Flight RCs had to switch to a new shop address and to email accounts.

The eight packs seized in Lithuania, which the newspaper article describes as the reason for authorities to investigate Flight RCs, could have already been seized in February. In a newsletter dated March 2023, Flight RCs directly addressed their Lithuanian customers, recommending they try alternative shipping options.

The arrests date back ten days, so this is yesterday’s news. BB forum published a news post almost immediately and banned the vendor’s account.

Nothing is older than yesterday’s news. I know. I thought I’d still share my thoughts and memories on Flight RCs, even if late, because better late than never.