There are a range of activities on offer from wakeboarding to yoga

An aqua park situated in “idyllic and lush English countryside”, is set to reopen on Saturday, May 2 – just in time for the bank holiday weekend. Southlake Waterpark in Little Paxton, near St Neots, not only has an aqua park, but also paddle boarding, open water swimming, a boat driving hub, and yoga by the lakes.

The venue is set within three freshwater lakes, and offers free parking on-site along with changing facilities, showers, and toilets. The aqua park features a large inflatable course with two big slides, and if you’re looking for that extra thrill, it has a large ramp to jump off into the water.

If you fancy something with a bit more adrenaline, then they offer lessons in waterskiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, wake-skating, and Ringo rides. Lessons are led by coaches and anyone at any skill level can have a go. Ringo rides are a good option for groups, as up to five people can ride at the same time.

For a more chilled activity, there is paddleboarding. While more experienced paddleboarder will be able to make their way gracefully around the lake, it may involve a bit more concentration and balance for a beginner. It’s a great way to have a laugh with friends and family all in the serene setting of the lake. Open water swimming is also available if you want to ditch the board.

If you’d rather stay on dry land, then there are yoga classes right on the edge of the lake. In the spring and summer, classes take place outside in a beautifully decorated marquee, with the addition of heating and blankets during the colder months. Classes should leave you feeling chilled out and relaxed. For that added bit of excitement while still staying dry, you could learn to drive a boat at the boat driving hub.

The aqua park, which is large enough to host up to 100 people per session, is available for children aged six and up. Users will need to be a minimum of 120cm tall and have the ability to swim 25m unaided.

The park will be operating 11am to 6pm everyday and costs £17 per 50-minute session, per participant. A second consecutive session on the same day costs £8.50. It costs £15 to rent a paddle board for a 50-minute session or alternatively, visitors can bring their own paddle board, kayak, or canoe to use on-site for £7 per person, per session.

From competitive swimmers or those who simply enjoy a wild swim, Southlake Waterpark offers open water swimming sessions running from April 18 until October 31, 2026 for £5 per swim.

Reviews have described the venue as a “really fun and interactive experience” with a “great lake to swim in”. One review said: “Fantastic inflatables – best and biggest we’ve experienced. My 9 year old son and I had the time of our lives.

“Loads to enjoy for all ages (adults included!). Friendly staff and atmosphere, clean and tidy changing rooms with free lockers to store belongings. We’ll definitely be back again!”

Another review said: “Excellent afternoon. I haven’t laughed so much for ages and the kids really enjoyed it too. Glad that we all decided to have a go. I would have been really envious watching even though I struggled to get on the inflatables.”

Matt Fitzpatrick ended day two of the RBC Heritage with a one-shot lead after carding an eight-under-par 63.

The Englishman made eight birdies, including sinking a 36-foot putt on hole 15, in a bogey-free second round at Hilton Head.

“Yeah, it was lucky, there’s no two ways about it,” Fitzpatrick said. “Sometimes you need that in a week, so it’s nice to get, and then even nicer to take advantage of it.”

Fitzpatrick – the 2022 US Open champion – began Friday in a six-way tie for third following an opening round of 65.

“I wouldn’t say I striped it today, but at least I kind of kept the ball in front of me, and that’s what you’re trying to do on this golf course,” Hovland said.

The 31-year-old tops the leaderboard on 14 under par at the halfway stage, with Norway’s Viktor Hovland one stroke behind after retaining second spot with a second-round score of 65.

Overnight leader Ludvig Aberg dropped to joint fourth position following three bogeys on the back nine.

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre ended the day six shots behind Fitzpatrick after posting a 68, while world number one Scottie Scheffler carded a 67 and is seven shots off the pace.

PA

Siobhian Brown, SNP candidate for Ayr, said: “As per our manifesto commitment, we recognise women face abuse in their everyday lives and need increased protection against this – that’s why we will bring forward a Misogyny Bill to legislate to ensure harassment and abuse based on misogyny is outlawed in Scotland.”

Passengers claim they thought pilot was “joking” when he stepped out of the cockpit to make the announcement.

A group of passengers were kicked off an easyJet plane because it was “too heavy” to take-off. Holidaymakers heading to Malaga were stunned when the pilot stepped out of the cockpit and told them the aircraft was over weight limits for the runway.

Passengers claimed they were told if people didn’t disembark, all the luggage would need to be left behind at Southend Airport. Kelly Wayand, who was travelling with her mum, disabled dad and partner, said she “couldn’t believe what was happening” and thought it was a joke at first.

Independent travel agent Kelly, 45, added: “It was bizarre, I had never heard anything like it before. The pilot came out of his cockpit and told everyone we couldn’t set off unless six of us got off the plane.

“He said it was either that or we leave all of the luggage behind. I was travelling with my dad, who is disabled, my mum, and my partner, so it would have been hard work for us to get off.”

Although Kelly and her family weren’t able to get off, another group made the sacrifice to allow the flight to go ahead. Kelly said: “Five people got off fairly quickly in around 10 minutes.”

As reported by The Mirror, the five kind flyers who decided to take the hit received a round of applause from their fellow passengers. Carly Mowbray was also on the April 11 flight.

She said: “The people who got off departed to a round of applause from those of us that stayed. The flight crew said they had not experienced it before. There were already 10 empty seats before the extra passengers got off.”

Flight records reveal the aircraft – an Airbus A319 – was scheduled to depart at 8.40am but actually took off at 8.59am. According to Airbus, an A319 has a maximum take-off weight of 75.50 tonnes.

EasyJet released a statement saying: “Five passengers on flight EJU7008 from Southend to Malaga volunteered to travel on alternative flights as a result of the aircraft being over the weight limits for the weather conditions and the short length of the runway. Weight restrictions are in place for all airlines for safety reasons.”

The budget airline added: “The customers were provided with transport and a later flight to Malaga on the same day, free of charge, from London Gatwick and we have been in touch with them to provide the compensation they are entitled to, in line with regulations. The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”

Under UK261 regulations, passengers who are denied boarding for a medium-haul flight such as between Southend and Malaga are entitled to £175 or £350 compensation, depending on the duration of the delay.

There is often a perception that geographical distance reduces vulnerability – an idea that can be particularly appealing in neutral countries with long-standing stable and strong economies.

Switzerland is a clear example: its long-standing neutrality, formally recognised at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and still recognised as a central part of its foreign policy, combined with its economic strength, has helped keep it outside major conflicts historically and reinforced the perception that distance, stability and wealth provide protection.

But in a world where energy, food, finance and even the atmosphere are tightly interconnected, distance (and neutrality) doesn’t shield Switzerland, or any other nation.

Take the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas passes through it. When it’s disrupted, the effects don’t stay local; they ripple outward through longer shipping routes, strained supply chains and shifting economic decisions in ways that reach far beyond the countries directly involved and could cause long-term environmental damage.

More often than not, this appears as subtle environmental and economic changes rather than sudden shocks.

Switzerland offers a particularly instructive example. It is neither an energy exporter nor a strategic actor in the conflict. Yet it sits at the intersection of multiple global systems: shipping and transport routes, European agriculture, high-value manufacturing and international finance.

Shipping routes and ice melt

When maritime routes are disrupted, as is currently happening, shipping does not stop. It adapts. Tankers take longer routes and fuel efficiency declines. The result is an increase in particulate emissions, including black carbon. These particles can travel vast distances. In high-altitude environments, their impact is amplified. When deposited on snow and ice, black carbon reduces reflectivity, increasing heat absorption and accelerating melt. In the Swiss Alps, where glaciers are already under pressure, even small increases can have measurable effects. Therefore, what begins as a logistical adjustment in global shipping can end up altering the physical state of distant mountain systems.

Switzerland’s industrial base offers another useful illustration. When firms face restricted or more expensive products, they often shift to alternative production methods. For instance, in the pharmaceutical industry, disruptions to chemical supply chains can force firms to switch suppliers or change elements used in production. While this may make economic sense, such changes are often not environmentally neutral. Different processes generate different byproducts, introducing new compounds into waste streams. The result may not be an immediate environmental crisis, but could create a gradual shift in the composition of pollutants.

À lire aussi :
How the Iran war could create a ‘fertiliser shock’ – an often ignored global risk to food prices and farming

Another example is the global fertiliser trade. In 2024, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain together accounted for 23% of global ammonia trade, 34% of global urea trade, and 18% of global ammoniated phosphate trade, key inputs for fertiliser production. Disruptions do not simply raise prices; they constrain availability, forcing adjustments across farming systems worldwide.

In parts of Europe, including Switzerland, there could be some positive and negative affects on the environment. Reduced fertiliser use may lower nutrient runoff into waterways, easing pressure on rivers such as the Rhine River and improving conditions in some lakes. Ecosystems long stressed by excess nitrogen may experience a degree of relief. Yet this comes with trade-offs. Swiss agriculture depends on high levels of this type of fertiliser and so may see declining yields and shifts in crops if this is reduced. Alpine pastures, in particular, depend on carefully managed nutrient balances influenced by nitrogen availability. Change can disrupt that equilibrium, exposing how deeply even local ecosystems depend on global supply chains.

Environmental change can also be shaped by investment decisions. In periods of geopolitical tension, capital tends to become more cautious. Liquidity, resilience and short-term risk management take priority over long-term projects.

Finance and migration

For financial centres such as Switzerland – home to huge reinsurance firms such as Swiss Re – this shift matters. Roughly 25% of total global cross-border assets (financial investments outside your home country) are managed in Switzerland. When uncertainty rises, risk models are recalibrated and capital is redirected.

The unintended consequence is that long-term environmental investments – such as ecosystem restoration – can be delayed or scaled back. Environmental resilience depends on steady, long-term commitment; interruptions, even temporary ones, could be detrimental.

Large-scale conflicts also tend to reshape migration patterns, sometimes indirectly. Even countries that are not primary destinations can experience increased migration or adjust policies in response to broader European dynamics. In small countries such as Switzerland, even modest population increases translate into land-use pressures.

Housing demand pushes outward, infrastructure expands, and previously marginal areas come into use. Reports suggest that agricultural land in Switzerland is reducing. Approximately one square metre is lost every second, with about 80% converted into settlement areas and the remaining 20% transitioning into forests. The environmental impact is gradual: increased resource consumption, greater strain on water and waste systems. None of these changes is dramatic on its own, but together they form a pattern of slow encroachment.

The effects of distant conflicts on neutral or far away countries are rarely direct. They are mediated through systems that operate quietly, often below the threshold of public attention.

Switzerland is not unique in this respect. It is simply a clear example: a country where environmental conditions are closely tracked, where economic systems are deeply integrated, and where small shifts can be observed with unusual precision. Neutrality may shape foreign policy, but it does not deliver environmental or economic immunity. In an interconnected world, exposure is universal.

LORD Robertson’s recent Strategic Defence Review recommendations must be acted upon with regards to defence spending and the development of our defence capability.

The obvious ways to fund defence is by reducing current welfare spending where we spend 10.3 per cent of GDP in comparison to 2.3per cent of GDP on defence.

The Government also needs to increase taxation to fund defence spending.

We also need to look at how we can resource recruitment in our reservist and cadet forces which may include conscription. We cannot afford to not deliver quickly on these recommendations.

It’s viewed that Russia will be as powerful as NATO militarily by the end of the decade.

The time to act and deliver is now. The country has been failed for the past 20 years in our defence spending.

Let’s hope this Government changes that – it’s had plenty of warnings what we need to do to improve our nation’s protection.

Failure to do so will lead to potential catastrophic consequences.

We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

John Jones,

Birch Close,

York

—

York’s got talent!

THE talented and well synchronised Northern Lights A Cappella group of Durham University appeared on BBC1 Breakfast TV on Monday morning, April 13 and in the evening on Look North.

They recently won the UK championship in this distinctive style of music with movement, earning them a spot in the world finals (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella) in New York later this month.

One of the students’ strong points, a speciality of theirs, is choreography. ‘Syncopation’ could be their middle name!

Last year they came third in the world championships against stiff competition from American universities. Fingers crossed (in unison) for this year!

Two of the 16-strong ensemble are Durham students from York; Alex – ‘beatboxer’ and Will – bass.

Google the group and find out more. It’s fun; it’s clever; it’s catchy!

Derek Reed,

Middlethorpe Drive,

York

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Amman United Youth overcame Pontypool United 30-13 in the WRU U-18s Cup final at the Principality Stadium to spark wonderful celebrations

Wales legend Shane Williams is celebrating one of his greatest Principality Stadium triumphs after guiding Amman United Youth to WRU U18s Cup glory on Friday night.

The former winger is one of the coaches at the side where it all began for him, with his son Carter starting on the wing against Pontypool United. Amman, who only re-started their youth team two years ago, beat Pontypool United 30-13 at the iconic venue.

It was a second heartbreaking final defeat in a row for Pontypool United, who were beaten in the last moments by Llandeilo last year.

Amman United were deserved winners, scoring three tries to one in a ferocious encounter that was a credit to both sides. There were wonderful scenes after the final whistle as the young Amman players celebrated the greatest win of their lives at the Principality in front of family and friends.

Williams had said: “We’ve come through some tough games this season and this Amman team has grown up together. I first met most of these lads when they were eight and I’ve come through with them, and my son Carter, since then.”

Captain Ceian Lewis led from the front, setting the tone with a bruising early hit, while Lewis Appleby and Charlie Gregory impressed in defence for Pontypool United.

A tight first half saw Amman’s Toby Slater and United’s Tom Howard exchange penalties before Wales U18 back rower Cole Lacey crossed for the first try after sustained pressure just before the break. It meant Williams’ side lead 10-6 at half-time with still all to play for.

The second-half could not have started any better for the Amman as James Bentley intercepted a pass on on his own 22 and sprinted 70 metres to score at the other end. This time it was coach Williams’ son, Carter, who added the conversion to put daylight between the teams

Pontypool United refused to go away, though, as co-captain Reuben Malsom barged over from a five metre penalty to cut the deficit to just four points once more.

But Amman found another gear, with Aled Davies racing over following a clinical move from a scrum. Williams converted and put the final nail in the coffin with two penalties.

Scorers:

Pontypool United: Try: Reuben Malson; Con: Tom Howard; Pens: Tom Howard 2.

Amman United: Tries: Cole Lacey, James Bentley, Aled Davies; Cons: Carter Williams 2, Toby Slater 2; Pens: Carter Williams 2,

TEAMS

Pontypool United: Jack McDonagh; Luca Grocott-Mason, Lewis Appleby, Charlie Gregory, Alfie Prosser; Thomas Howard, Daniel Parker; Logan Leonard, Cae Jones (co-captain), Scott Crewe, Ralph Evans, Reuben Malson (co-captain), Rudi Creel, Bailey Stride, Jake Sheppard

Reps: Ieuan Hockaday, George Jones, Max Jacob, Dewi Bainton, Coel Adams, Lewis Jenkins, Charlie Burrows, Danny Hutchinson

Amman United: Cian Evans; Carter Williams, James Bentley, Kennedy Richards (co-captain), Aled Davies; Toby Slater, Iwan Bull; Ceian Lewis (co-captain), Griff Rees, David Thomas, Tom James, Dyfan Llewelyn, Cole Lacey, Jac Cloke, Hefin Davies

Reps: Reagan Griffiths, Flynn Ahearne, Harvey Duncan, Josh Doorbar, Evan Whiles, Iwan Griffiths, Tomos Bull, Ioan Booth

The process that should take months, but was telescoped into weeks, resulted in the failure of Peter Mandelson to pass Developed Vetting for one of the most sensitive jobs for Britain in the world.

Its main focus is to exposure liars and anyone vulnerable to blackmail.

The vetting system is intentionally intrusive. It is believed to cost at least £80,000 per person, and involves cross-checking every detail of the subject’s personal lives.

Those who have been through it know that the key is candour when faced with the searching questions in interviews about the use of porn, your sex life, drug and drinking experiences and habits, affairs, kinks, family contacts, travel history.

Agents for the United Kingdom Security Vetting service will use every possible resource, overt and covert, to scrutinise candidates.

Open source information on friendships abroad, foreign contacts, financial relationships, associations with known convicted criminals would emerge. So would gaps in financial reporting, unexplained loans and gifts would be highlighted.

“These are all the necessary parts of making sure that whatever is in someone’s background that makes them vulnerable – we know about it – so that they are less likely to be pressed into betraying their country for financial gain or through blackmail,” said a UK-based former civil servant who has gone through the vetting process.

“You can admit to some quite dodgy stuff and still pass, but lying is a red flag fail.”

Mandelson, who was known anyway to have been friends with Jeffrey Epstein prior to the latter’s convictions for sex crimes, was announced as the British ambassador to Washington on 20 December 2025.

He was in post by 25 February the following year, which meant that his clearance was pushed up the queue ahead of others in less exalted positions.

Typically, security sources have explained to The Independent, that involves the urgent interviewing of close friends and associates of Mandelson by officials from the vetting agency.

They ask probing and, for ordinary civilians, often highly intrusive questions about candidates. These answers are then used to check the honesty of what the candidate says in their own interviews.

Mandelson would, it should be assumed, have been asked to explain the receipt of several payments from Jeffrey Epstein, as well as payments from the alleged people trafficker to his now husband – after Epstein’s conviction.

Mandelson has said publicly that he cannot recall these payments. It is not clear that such an answer would have satisfied UKSV.

He has further denied an impropriety amid allegations, revealed in the Epstein files published in the US, that allegedly suggest he lobbied the UK government on banking and other financial issues that Epstein had an interest in, and that he forwarded market sensitive government material to Epstein while he was business secretary in 2009.

Mandelsom’s flights at Epstein’s expense, his stays on Epstein’s property, would have, or should have, been known about and explained in DV interviews with the UKSV as they were recorded in flight logs.

Emails between the two men, and these other details, led to Mandelson being fired as ambassador to Washington.

Sir Olly Robbins, who was the civil service head of the foreign office when Mandelson took over, has resigned over his department’s decision to overrule the UKSV and give Mandelson access to the most secret of secrets and most secret relationships that any British official could encounter.

Mandelson’s day to day job involved being privy to bilateral intelligence of the kind even hidden from the Five Eyes shared system of the Anglosphere involving the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

He would have been present for, or hosted, informal chats with top American intelligence officials and the heads of British intelligence agencies.

Tories have, inevitably, called for the head of the prime minister Sir Keir Starmer. Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP for Tonbridge is a former security minister and as an officer in military intelligence and as military assistant to the then Chief of the General Staff, general David Richards, he went through the DV process.

“Our government, rightly, spends millions on vetting. It’s not perfect but it’s the only rational response to the very real threat of espionage, corruption and blackmail,” he said on X.

“It’s intrusive and not pleasant, and it takes months; but it’s necessary. Holding a clearance is limiting but losing one is career-ending, as it should be.

“I’ve been vetted and responsible for vetting as a soldier and minister. I’ve never heard of anyone who failed vetting getting a senior position, or any position of sensitivity.

“Given the essential oversight of the intelligence sharing and commercial relationship between the US and UK, it’s hard to think of a more sensitive position.”

He went on to explain that the kind of waiver that was given Lord Mandelson would, usually, have involved a ministerial sign off.

They are necessarily issued when there is an urgent need to include an unvetted agent into a secret process or include someone in the secret realm when his clearance was in the pipeline.

“It is extraordinary to suggest that our ambassador to the US not only held no ministerial waiver for the temporary absence of his vetting clearance but, worse, had actually been vetted and found to be personally a risk to the security of the UK and appointed anyway,” Tughendat said.

Further disruption is expected this weekend

More than 200 trains were cancelled in two days after overhead lines became damaged at Manchester Piccadilly. It’s understood the wire became ‘tangled’ with a pantograph when an Avanti West Coast service pulled into the station at 11.20am on Thursday (April 16).

Complex repair works have since been taking place, with railway lines due to close for 12 hours from 11pm tonight (Saturday) to complete them. Passengers are being warned to expect continuing disruption at the station this weekend.

Although most services are running as normal today, several have been cancelled, with further cancellations expected. Avanti West Coast is running only one train per hour between Manchester and London, while Northern is running a revised timetable.

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Network Rail has apologised for the disruption caused by damage to the overhead line, which carries 25,000 volts of electricity to power trains and is a critical part of the infrastructure. Passengers are being urged to check the latest situation for their service before travelling.

Below is a list of services which have been cancelled at Piccadilly so far today, with details currently available up to 10.30am. The list will be updated throughout the day.

Cancelled departures at Manchester Piccadilly on Saturday, April 18:

• 08:14 London Euston: Cancelled
• 08:34 London Euston: Cancelled
• 08:38 Alderley Edge: Cancelled
• 08:46 Stoke-on-Trent: Cancelled
• 08:54 London Euston: Cancelled
• 09:14 London Euston: Cancelled
• 09:38 Alderley Edge: Cancelled
• 09:46 Stoke-on-Trent: Cancelled
• 09:54 London Euston: Cancelled
• 10:14 London Euston: Cancelled
• 10:20 Hazel Grove: Cancelled

Nearly two decades after drug addiction sent him to rehab as a teenager, 36-year-old Michael Nalewaja had settled into a quiet life in Alaska where he worked as an electrician.

That all came crashing down days before Thanksgiving 2025, when he and a mutual friend unknowingly took a lethal cocktail of fentanyl and carfentanil they may have mistaken for cocaine.

“I heard the word ‘autopsy’ and I literally just collapsed to the floor,” his mother, Kelley Nalewaja said, recalling the call she received from his wife. “Even if somebody had been there prepared with Narcan — even if somebody had called 911 in time — he was not going to survive.”

Carfentanil, a weapons-grade chemical that authorities say is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl, has seen a drastic resurgence across the U.S., killing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users.

The rise coincides with a recent crackdown by the Chinese government on the sale of precursors used to make fentanyl. Those regulations are likely prompting traffickers in Mexico to use carfentanil to boost the potency of a weakened version of fentanyl, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence bulletins reviewed by The Associated Press.

The surge of a drug so deadly that less than a poppy seed-sized amount can kill a person comes as fentanyl seizures and overall drug overdose deaths continue a multiyear decline.

“You’re talking about not even a grain of salt that could be potentially lethal,” said Frank Tarentino, the DEA’s chief of operations for its northeast region, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. “This presents an extremely frightening proposition for substance abuse dependent people who seek opioids on the street today.”

Carfentanil surge

A decade ago, carfentanil exploded into the North American drug supply, causing hundreds of unsuspecting drug users to overdose, only to see a major dip after China banned it, closing a key regulatory loophole in the U.S.

But the situation has shifted dramatically in recent years.

In 2025, DEA labs identified carfentanil 1,400 times in U.S. drug seizures, compared with 145 in 2023 and only 54 in 2022, according to DEA records viewed by AP.

Traffickers in Mexico may be experimenting with producing carfentanil themselves, authorities say, while others could be procuring it from China-based vendors skirting the country’s regulations by spamming online forums in other countries with ads for the drug.

Complicating matters for the cartels are the extreme dangers associated with manufacturing carfentanil, Tarentino said.

“You can’t just dabble in this,” he said. “This is not some mad scientist on Reddit you’re going to get to go out to a rudimentary laboratory in Mexico to make carfentanil.”

Dip in overdose deaths and fentanyl seizures

U.S. overdose deaths have fallen for more than two years — the longest drop in decades. Experts point to several possible explanations, including the overdose-reversing drug naloxone being more widely available and the expansion of addiction treatment. Some have also tied it to the regulatory changes the U.S. has pressed for in China.

Experts say that even multiple high doses of naloxone might not be enough to reverse an overdose when carfentanil is involved.

Fentanyl seizures, along with several other illicit drugs, have also dipped. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that fentanyl seizures plunged to about 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms) in 2025 — less than half the amount seized in 2023.

But even as fentanyl numbers fall, it remains a major focus of the DEA. Just recently, the agency’s proposed budget included a $362 million increase centered on cartel-driven fentanyl trafficking.

“Anyone who takes a pill that is not prescribed to them by their doctor is playing a game of Russian roulette with their life,” said Sara Carter, President Donald Trump’s drug czar. “But if those terrorists think they can continue this chemical warfare without consequences, they are wrong.”

Researched as a chemical weapon

While the prevalence of carfentanil still pales in comparison to fentanyl, experts are nevertheless alarmed by the increase of a substance researched for years as a chemical weapon and deployed by Russian forces on Chechen separatists in 2002.

The DEA’s annual quota for lawfully manufactured carfentanil — veterinarians use it to tranquilize elephants and other large animals — is just 20 grams, an amount that can fit in the palm of your hand.

“It’s like a biological weapon,” said Michael King Jr., founder of the Opioid Awareness Foundation. “If the world thinks we had a problem with fentanyl, that’s minute compared to what we’re going to be dealing with with carfentanil.”

In 2024, overdose deaths involving carfentanil nearly tripled compared to the previous year, with 413 deaths across 42 states and Washington, D.C., according to the most recent data available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Carfentanil definitely has that potential of spreading throughout the United States unless law enforcement really focuses in on carfentanil and they develop intelligence as to how these drug addicts are getting it,” said Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations at the DEA.

In recent months, the DEA has documented several large seizures of carfentanil. In October, the DEA Los Angeles Field Division found 628,000 pills containing carfentanil, while in September, officials seized more than 50,000 counterfeit M30 pills from a person at a gas station in Washington state that turned out to be a mixture of carfentanil and acetaminophen.

‘All about money’

In some cases, frequent drug users have become tolerant to fentanyl and are seeking out carfentanil, despite the danger, because of the sudden euphoria it promises, explained Rob Tanguay, senior medical lead for addiction services with Recovery Alberta, a health agency in Canada. It appeals to the drug market, he said, because so little of it goes such a long way toward supply.

“The toughest part about all of this,” he said, “is that this is all about money.”

After Michael Nalewaja’s death, his mother decided against a large funeral.

Instead, she organized a town hall in her hometown of El Dorado Hills, California, bringing together local officials along with mothers who had gone through something similar.

As she grieves her son, an adept salesman full of charisma who had recently gotten a national award by the electrical union, she’s pushing for major legislative and judicial changes so others don’t go through what she did because of a drug she said was never meant for humans.

“It’s not an OD; it’s not an overdose,” she said. “It’s a murder weapon.”

___

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed.