Ciudad Juárez Police Warns About Alleged Cases of Krokodil in Mexico

The rise of registered cases of Krokodil use around the world has alarmed health authorities and specialists, who say this could become a global epidemic.

The recent cases in England and the United States are joined by alleged cases of Krokodil doses seized by Ciudad Juárez police units.

According to a Daniel Domínguez report published on El Diario, Ciudad Juárez border patrol policemen had seized various doses of the dangerous drug in recent months. Krokodil is a codeine derivative that can be easily made with substances bought in pharmacies and malls.

Quoted by the source, the secretary of security of Ciudad Juárez, César Omar Muños Morales confirmed that the use of synthetic substances like Krokodil has gone up in the city.

The report emphasizes that authorities of El Paso, Texas, have reported numerous cases of the drug which is being sold in parties and nightclubs on both sides of the border, claims which have been confirmed by police officers who seized doses in Ciudad Juárez. Despite this, Federal authorities in Mexico have not made any comment on the matter.

Recently, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, a 17-year-old teenager went to see a doctor to get treatment for an infection attacking her skin. Although at first, state authorities confirmed this was the first case of Krokodil in Mexico, they later corrected themselves and said it was an American case but that the patient is from Puerto Vallarta.

"This case came directly from Houston, Texas. This is not a Jalisco case. It happened to a 17-year-old, born in Puerto Vallarta, but she doesn't live here. She got addicted in the United States and is here vacationing. She went to a health center over an infection, we were not told what kind," said the technical secretary of the State Council Against Addictions in Jalisco, Enrico Sotelo, to Milenio.

Mexican newspaper Excélsior then picked up José Sotero Ruíz Hernández' statements, an official of the National Migration Institute, who told the local press, "There's a case we saw in Social Security: the girl taking this drug, her sexual organs were infected and rotting; it wasn't due to sexual relations, she explained she had been consuming Krokodil for two months. She's 17. She says they're selling it like cocaine, in any corner."

The so-called "drug of the living dead" owes its name to the injuries it creates on the skin of those addicted which at first seems to darken and becomes scaly, like a crocodile's. Prolonged use of Krokodil produces necropsy where it's injected which causes the skin to rot and fall off, exposing the addict's bones.