Prison staff unions are warning against the introduction of a new drug into Spanish prisons. In the south we call it “little paper”. In the Levant, the “fish”. Its consumption has increased exponentially in the last year, banishing other options like “rebujito”, heroin or cocaine.
The “little paper” consists of a folio impregnated with synthetic drugs including fentanyl and ketamine. Its strength and success lie in the fact that cannot be detected: neither by the Civil Guard at access controls nor, once inside, by civil servants.
Once inside the penitentiary center, the prisoner who received or introduced the drug upon returning from prison leave Cut this sheet of paper into narrow strips that do not reach two centimeters in length..
One strip equals one dose. It is put in the usual cigarette and sold, with or without a cigarette, to prisoners. Its price fluctuates between 5 and 8 euros.
This year, according to the sources consulted, 6 inmates were removed from the prisons of Morón de la Frontera (Seville); Botafuegos, in Algeciras and Puerto III (Cádiz) and Valencia. All this in the absence of official data, which is not publicly distributed unless expressly requested via the Transparency Portal.
“We know that this is because it is perfectly detected when there is ‘little paper’ in the modules, although we cannot know this officially because They don’t provide us with autopsies“, explains a prison official.
Jorge Vilas, national responsible for CSIF Prisonsthis newspaper tells this newspaper that “we know he’s coming in because the inmates start dropping like flies“Some in the infirmary, others in the hospital… “Then they get scared, they stay still for a while and then they fall again.”
Joaquin Leivaof the union Acaipexplains that the problem is that the “small paper” is “virtually undetectable when a sheet of paper is impregnated.”
To achieve this, “it would be necessary to plan isotope detectors and apply it to all correspondence that comes into the prison, or at least, randomly, so that there is at least some sort of pressure on the person sending the drugs, in case it is detected.
One of the cells of Botafuegos prison, in Algeciras (Cádiz), in an archive image.
Vilas emphasizes that it is “impossible to control because it enters inside a letter, for example, and in addition, this impregnated paper It could even be the letter itself.. So, the official opens the letter, without reading it, checks that there is nothing there and forwards it. And he succeeds because he has no way of checking whether he has drugs or not, because the reagents we have don’t detect them. »
At the entrances to the prisons there is a canine unit of the Civil Guard. Accustomed to detecting traditional drugs, such as rebujito, heroin, cocaine or hashish. They don’t identify him.
“Certain ‘little papers’ are so powerful that the dogs of the canine units, because they suck so hard, were left in shock,” explains the national manager of CSIF Prisons. And he even points out that “a Civil Guard dog had a cardiac arrest on one occasion.”
Lawyers’ papers, letters from loved ones, an intern in a book upon returning from leave… It’s powerful and it’s inexpensive. But above all, “he’s a bomb, to the point that the inmates themselves have a lot of respect for him.”
For his part, Joaquín Leiva, from the Acaip union, warns that “we cannot go behind reality and that we must adapt to prevent the entry of these substances, which are very dangerous, both because of the effect they have on the detainee, and because of their security issues that it generates”.
Worry
Intoxication with these characteristics “completely nullifies the prisoner, escapes him. It makes him unpredictable. Combine this with the lack of doctors in the centers who can administer the appropriate drugs to reduce the effects… well, this new drug is one of our main concerns looking to the future.”
“And since we can’t detect it, well we can’t blame anything to the person who inserts it,” adds Vilas.
The national representative of the Csif in the Penitentiary Institutions emphasizes that they have already transferred this problem to the Penitentiary Institutions. “We sent warning of writings for two reasons. Firstly, because it cannot be detected and secondly, because it is hugely addictive. »
It is, he sums up, “a bomb, to the point that prisoners regulate themselves because they know it can give them an adverse reaction that could lead to death.
Angel Luis Perearepresentative of the CSIF in Puerto III, one of the neighborhoods in which the “little newspaper” operates, warns that “in addition to It is not known what type of substance “That is to say, when an inmate has almost overdosed, he does not respond to the medications that are given to him to recover.”
As for the composition, it is completely unknown. “Sometimes several people get high all at once because a sheet of paper enters. The truth is that some are more affected and others less, because it depends on the quantity and the way of smoking“.
a roulette
Thus, Perea explains that if the smoke is inhaled “as is commonly said, thrown into the chest, the action of the drug is much more powerful. is swallowedsince the effects are minor.”
In the end, it is Russian roulette “because the same person who has the paper and who puts him in prison does not know what type or quantity of drugs he is carrying.”
They know for sure that “there is fentanyl, it seems that ketamine too… They told us that it can also contain K2 and K3, which are other synthetic drugs. Acid also, but no LSD: they include, for example, paint stripper, car tire polish…”
Exterior of the Puerto III prison, in Puerto de Santa María.
So this affects this how to impregnate sheets It is also decisive. “On the Costa del Sol the paper submerges in a mixture then they dry it, with which the tops and ends of the leaf are much more loaded with medicine than what remains in the center. In other places the medicine permeates the folio sprayed with a spray”
The entry of the “little newspaper” into the prisons is a breeding ground “for negotiations and conflicts between the prisoners themselves. For us too, it is a circumstance of professional risk“. He gives as an example “a civil servant touching a paper which is impregnated with it and then scratching his eye”.
Perea points out that drug traffickers, in collusion with inmates, “are very intelligent, because they have come to wonder what type of drugs they can put in prison that is undetectable: well, on paper. And in fact, it entered from the south and now reaches all the prisons in Spain. They saw that it works and it is copied.
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