JACKSONVILLE, FL — A federal case involving two Jacksonville brothers accused of selling counterfeit oxycodone pills is putting a lesser-known synthetic opioid, nitazenes, in the spotlight. Prosecutors say Vladislav Chernyshov, 35, and Stanislav Chernyshov, 30, were arrested Aug. 28 and charged with conspiracy to distribute nitazenes.
Court documents say the brothers allegedly used the darknet under the name “BarbaraWhite” and marketed pills as fent-free oxycodone. Lab testing later found several nitazenes in pills tied to the alleged operation, including protonitazene, metonitazene, N-pyrrolidino etonitazene and N-pyrrolidino isotonitazene.
The case began after a fatal overdose in Arlington, Virginia, according to federal prosecutors. It also raises a basic question for people buying pills illegally: there is no reliable way to know what is inside them.
What nitazenes are and why they worry drug experts
Nitazenes are synthetic opioids that were first developed decades ago as possible painkillers. They were never approved for medical use in the United States because of how powerful they are and the risk of dependency…