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BRISTOL, Wisconsin – The collapse of drugs has broken the morning silence of this manicurist subdivision in southeastern Wisconsin. The police stopped in front of a whitewashed brick apartment and took the neighbors out of bed with the thud of banging hard on a door.
What they found inside was not crystal meth, cocaine or fentanyl, but thin boxes of Vape cartridges labeled with aromas like strawberry and peaches and cream. 98,000 additional cartridges were empty. Fifty-seven mason jars nearby contained a substance that resembled black honey: a liquid containing THC used for vaping, a practice that is now at the heart of a serious public health alert sweeping the country.
Vaping devices, which have gained popularity as a means of consuming nicotine and THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, have been linked in recent months. nearly 400 diseases and six deaths. Federal and state health investigators have not yet determined the cause of the problem, but authorities are investigating whether harmful chemicals have been found in vaping products, perhaps a thriving national black market of vaping products powered by online sales and lax regulation.
This month's bankruptcy in Wisconsin, where THC is illegal, offers an intimate look at dark operations serving a large number of teens and adults across the country who use vaping products on the black market sometimes unconsciously because it is difficult to distinguish them from the legitimate ones.
"When we went in there, we said, 'Oh, my boy,'" said Captain Dan Baumann of the Waukesha Police Department. "That's what we were looking for, but we did not know it was so big."
The authorities stated that the main actors in the operation were brothers who were barely 20 years old, Jacob and Tyler Huffhines, who lived in a small town close. Both are now in custody at Kenosha County Jail. According to police, other arrests and charges in this case are likely to follow.
Tyler, 20, is being held for the manufacture, distribution and delivery of marijuana; Jacob, 23 is detained under the charge of possession of cocaine and to be a criminal in possession of a firearm. Authorities said Jacob was under investigation for his involvement in the drug-related operation.
Across the country, public health officials are preparing for a massive underground market for illicit vaping products for both nicotine and marijuana. The products are sold online and in the street, ephemeral stores and individual transactions, sometimes organized via social media.
"I would meet people at Starbucks, a cross street, in front of an apartment, where they tell you," said a 17-year-old man, hospitalized for a vet lung disease in the state of New York. York. . He asked that his name not be used to protect his reputation and his private life.
"He never comes where they get," he said. "You do not ask."
Investigators have not yet determined whether there is any link between the Wisconsin operation and any of the serious atmospheric-related lung diseases. But the country's public health officials, including Mitch Zeller, director of the Tobacco Products Center of the Food and Drug Administration, say that street-made vaping products should be avoided by all consumers and be the most great risk to health.
Vaping works by heating the liquid and turning it into steam to be inhaled. The initial intention was to give smokers a way to satisfy their cravings for nicotine without inhaling the carcinogenic substances associated with burning tobacco.
However, spray devices and cartridges can be used to heat many substances, including cannabis-based oils, and some of the solvents used to dissolve them may have their own health problems.
The Wisconsin operation is quite characteristic of a "A very advanced and well-developed illicit market for THC steam trolleys", said David Downs, an expert in the marijuana trade and head of Leafly's California office, a website that offers news, information and reviews of cannabis-based products. ('Chariots' is the common abbreviation for cartridges.)
"These types of operations are integral to the distribution of THC-contaminated vapor recovery trolleys in the United States," said Downs.
They are known as "pen factories", playing a crucial intermediary role: they buy empty vape cartridges and counterfeit packaging from Chinese factories, then fill them with liquid THC they buy on the US market. Cartridges and empty packaging are also available on eBay, Alibaba and other e-commerce sites.
Filled cartridges are not, by definition, a health risk. However, Mr. Downs, along with THC's legal business owners and health officials, say that illegal operations use a tactic common to other illicit drug manufacturing operations: cutting their product with other substances, some of which may be dangerous.
The motive is profit; a farm earns more money by using less of the main ingredient, THC – which is expensive – and diluting it with much cheaper oils.
Public health authorities have stated that some cutting agents could be at the origin of lung diseases and have affected a particular substance, vitamin E acetate, an oil that can cause respiratory problems and inflammation of the skin. lungs if it did not heat up completely during the steam aerosolization process.
The average quality THC can cost $ 4,000 per kilo and the high quality THC is doubled, but the additives can cost a few cents, said Chip Paul, a long-time entrepreneur from Oklahoma, who led the operation to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.
"That's what they do, they cut that oil," he said of illegal operations. "If I can cut it in half," he said, "I can double my money."
Black market products are packaged in the same way as legal THC vaping products in some states. Sometimes packaging is a direct counterfeit of mass-market brands sold in places like California or Colorado, where THC is legal, and others just look at the room.
"Someone would not recognize that it is not a legitimate product," said Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the state's health department. New York, adding that it was a huge risk. "The counterfeit purse you buy in the corner is not going to kill you, but the counterfeit device you buy has a chance to kill you," he said.
In Wisconsin, well-packaged vaping devices carried logos such as Dabwoods, Chronic Sour Patch and Dank King Louie. Police said Huffhines operation produces nearly 3000 cartridges a day. The cartridges sell for between $ 35 and $ 40.
A Tyler Huffhines lawyer declined to comment.
The Wisconsin police are amazed by the magnitude and ambition of the Huffhines operation and are only beginning to understand how far it could have gone.
It was a teenager from the nearby town of Waukesha whose actions eventually led the police to the Bristol operation, a town located a few miles to the Illinois border.
The parents of this teenager discovered that he was vaping and brought him to the Waukesha Police Station. He then told the police where he found his vaping supplies; the authorities followed the sellers step by step, and several degrees of separation later, they were taken to the Huffin brothers.
The condo in Bristol, rented under a false name, would be their base of operations. But one afternoon last week, it seemed abandoned, the blinds inside being tightly closed and a bump on the front door.
Until recently, the condo had a quiet activity that only attracted the attention of neighbors. The operation employed at least 10 people, the police said, who were paid 20 dollars per hour to use syringes to fill the oil cartridges. The Huffhines kept meticulous records, using scorecards to note when employees were working. The cartridges were sold in packs of 100, through channels that the authorities, who also seized 18 pounds of marijuana and three counters, said they still do not understand.
This may be the ideal place for a drug operation, said a neighbor, who described the subdivision as a mix of busy professionals and poorly socialized families.
Another neighbor said that she thought the Huffhines had started renting the place a few months ago, describing a steady stream of young men coming in and out of the condo, generally well dressed, and driving expensive cars.
"I can not give my name," she said, lowering her voice. "They are drug lords."
In the Huffhines House in nearby Paddock Lake, a five-minute drive from the apartment, investigators found $ 59,000 in cash, eight firearms, 10 grams of marijuana, and weighing scales. other objects related to drugs.
At the Westosha Central High School, attended by the Huffin brothers, they were seen as ambitious and privileged and lived with their mother, real estate agent and grandfather, in a quiet area overlooking a lake.
Students leaving school on Thursday afternoon described an easy access system to vaping devices containing nicotine or THC, despite strict penalties imposed by administrators when they were caught .
Students frequently vape in bathrooms, he said, and getting vaping devices is as simple as asking someone to make contact.
News about the deaths and injuries of vaping is spreading in all schools, said a 16-year-old.
"People are afraid of being caught," he added. "Now they are also afraid of getting sick."
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