but the new day was never going to see him in it. and he was never going to be here any other day. it was, erm, the hardest thing i've ever had to deal with. _ we expose how these drugs, nitazenes, are being openly advertised on major social media sites. x — formerly twitter — and soundcloud. do you have many customers from soundcloud? she laughs. he discovered the way in which criminals are hiding advertisements for illegal drug content. i mean, it...it�*s horrifying. we just need to do more. these deaths are preventable. dylan used to rehearse here.

muffled guitar plays. # where i've been before...# we're at rehearsals for a music festival held every year in memory of claire's son, dylan rocha. # take me down...# this is one of dylan's songs, erm, that he wrote, but no—one actually found it until after he'd died. he was special, obviously, from the minute he was born. as soon as he could talk, the first thing he asked for was a drum kit. always very, very musical. # before you take me...# this isjonas — that's my son. this is paddy — that's dylan's best friend. and this is carlos — that's dylan's dad. guitar feedback. he was, er, unique.

charismatic, funny. leather trouser—wearing, black hair — box dye, obviously. hard to describe, butjust brilliant. he loved performing. he'd get really nervous, but you wouldn't be able to tell when he was up there. # your black hair...# i think most of his music's probably on soundcloud. he'd upload onto there, in the hope that people would listen and enjoy. i do think he was a musical genius. what would he have made of all of you getting together today, and playing this music, do you think? he laughs. it could've gone one - of two ways, couldn't it? he would've hated it. yeah, either he would've hated it... we were taking the mickey. yeah — as a teenager, he'd have really creative moments, where he'd be, "i've done this — i've written this song, mum. "listen to it, this is great." then there'd be a time when he'd lock himself in his room and wouldn't come out. he was a down place, in a dark place.

dylan's family tried to get him mental health support, and eventually sent him to rehab after discovering he was using heroin. what did you know about dylan's drug—taking? he was very secretive, when it came to that stuff. he wasn't proud of it. i was 20 when he died, and he was 21. erm... so, losing him was like, my whole world ending. it was, erm, the hardest thing i've ever had to deal with. yeah. it was the 24th ofjuly, in 2021. round about 4 o'clock in the morning, and it was his girlfriend, who was calling me. "dylan's taken something. i think it's heroin. "it doesn't look good." isaid, "0k, well, i'm coming. i'm on my way." an ambulance man... ..came out to greet me and said, "mrs rocha"? i said, "yes". he said, "i'm really sorry to have to tell you, "but dylan has just passed away". just...wh—what do you do...?

what do you do with that? tearfully: i remember not wanting i the sun to go down because then, i the day was over, you know? the day... the new day was never going to see him in it and he was never going to be in any other day. two months later, dylan's death was ruled an accidental overdose. he'd injected what he thought was heroin — but in fact, he'd overdosed on a combination of heroin, alcohol, and something else. it only became apparent once we'd seen his toxicology report that there was nitazenes in his system. there was actually another drug, and he would not have known that was there. it's a silent...silent killer. what do you know about nitazenes? have you heard of them before? i'd never heard of them before, no. no, neither had i. no. everyone i've spoken to, "what's that?" no... no knowledge at all. mm—hm.

really scary. dylan's was one of the first nitazene—related deaths in the south of england. but the synthetic opioids have been involved in at least 19 deaths across the south in the past three years, claiming lives in bournemouth, portsmouth, guildford, and oxfordshire. there have been 84 nitazene—related deaths in the past nine months in england and wales. drug deaths are at the highest levels ever recorded, at almost 5,000 a year. nitazene deaths may be a small portion of that but the concern is how quickly they're rising. then we come on to the nitazenes. and these are so potent that they're very difficult to even weigh out accurately what a fatal dose would be. we've got, you know, a couple of grains in the bottom here... right. ..is approximately what we think

could be causing death. these drugs are not safe to handle, so toxicologist dr caroline copeland is using salt to show how a small amount could prove deadly. i don't think there is even a safe dose. she's been looking into nitazene deaths since the first cases were spotted in 2019. how potent are nitazenes, compared to heroin? some of the weaker ones are 100 times more potent than heroin, and some of them are 500—800 times more potent than heroin. so, you're concerned about nitazenes? absolutely. if this is being mixed into heroin supplies and not being sold as actually what it is, if you don't know what you're taking, you can accidentally fatally overdose very easily.

so, what's it like, being back here? emotional. whereabouts was the car parked? erm, just here. in september 2021, in the early hours of the morning, emergency services rushed to this car park, where peter haslam and adrian davies, two local men, were in cardiac arrest. my mind was basically racing, like, panic, not knowing what to do.

all three men struggled with addiction. after a night out, they stopped on the way home and were smoking what they thought was heroin. so, what was going through your head when all of this was happening? basically, i wasjust trying to keep us alive. and i had to try and do cpr on them whilst they were sat upright in the vehicle, and also give them naloxone, and myself naloxone. naloxone is an antidote medicine, designed to reverse opioid overdoses. there's ambulances coming down here, parked down the road as well. by this time, they'd got adrian and peter out of the vehicle, and they were on the floor, and they'd put machines on them to revive them. and it was when, basically, when you heard those machines get turned off, then, you know, i realised then that they'd passed away. they had no idea the illegal drugs contained nitazenes. you're taking drugs

at your own risk anyway, but if it's got nitazenes in it, then really, they're handing out a death sentence. very, very unusual for us to have one death, let alone two. so, it was one of those things we've never seen before. turning point, a drug and alcohol treatment service, was one of the first to hear what happened. we had a email at ten to eight in the morning from the chief inspector at thames valley police, that said there had been an incident. he quite rightly identified it could be drug—related. with two men already dead, they had to act quickly to warn others. we're aware of other kinds of situations across the country where, very quickly, you can go from a couple of deaths to lots and lots of deaths. you go from that moment of dread, sinking in your heart kind of feeling, to,

"this is our time. "this is the time to respond." we got the staff team together, and we very quickly made a list of things we wanted to do. we knew getting more naloxone out on the street was absolutely essential as quickly as we could. naloxone is the one thing we have which can actually prevent those drug—related deaths. we filled up in the car, and we went round to people's houses. "you've never come round my house. "why are you coming round my house now?" we gave out 350 kits in two days. by the time we got to the end of the first week, we thought, "maybe we've kicked this". to know of two more deaths was really tragic. despite their best efforts and possible lives saved, another two men overdosed due to nitazenes in oxfordshire, leaving four dead in less than two weeks. we just need to do more. these deaths are preventable.

we wanted to know where the drugs had come from. thames valley police told us two arrests were made, but nobody was charged, and they're no longer investigating. so, how are nitazenes ending up on our streets? so, this is where a £2 million drug operation was running. two years ago, police raided this warehouse unit and discovered a drugs lab on a massive scale. behind a false wall was a secret door. behind that, stacked high were crates of tablets, industrial pill—pressing machines, and vats of highly toxic chemicals. there were 183,000 tablets seized,

all of which contained this new variant of nitazene. the police told me that this was the first known seizure in this country. let's hear about this case. v0|ceover: henrietta paget kc was the crown prosecution service lawyer on the case. there were three people arrested. allen valentine, roshan valentine and krunal patel had been making counterfeit prescription drugs. customers then would pay them on the dark web. and then, one of them would go off to the post office and stick it in the post. it was as simple as that. the three men were jailed for between six to 11 years. text messages found by police uncovered the source of their raw ingredients — china. suppliers started offering them a new variant of nitazene. conspirators were saying, "well, what's that, then"? and the chinese suppliers were saying, "oh, it's hot stuff. "you should definitely try it. "let us send you a sample." and they did. and the conspirators said, "yes, we've tested that.

"it seems great. can we have some more, please?" and a consignment came in in the summer of 2022. although the london gang were jailed, the supply of nitazenes from china hasn't stopped. i'd heard some suppliers were advertising openly online. so, i start searching. there's thousands of adverts. posing as a drug dealer wanting to import to the uk, i send some messages. immediately, responses come in. the legal situation in china isn't straightforward. whilst some nitazenes are illegal, others aren't. in the uk, it's against the law to import or sell any nitazenes. and these suppliers seem to know when i ask them. one seller messages this —

a bag of dog food — as an example of how they'll get the drugs past customs. i get videos of labs, where they claim nitazenes are being made. bags of white powder weighed on scales, huge sacks of brown powder — all said to be nitazenes. they're very keen to sell me their products, offering huge volumes — up to one kilo. many say they can post it straight to me. i contact 35 suppliers. 30 say they can post nitazenes to the uk. some are happy to video call. in england, it is illegal.

some people have died in england from taking this drug. you promise it is safe? this stuff is illegal here in england, yeah? and i need proof that you can get it to the uk safely. many of the sales reps appear to be working for large chemical companies with an online presence. why should i buy from you, not another company?

i've posed undercover, and we've been offered nitazenes by suppliers in china, and they have offered to send us a kilo of a specific nitazene in the post. erm, well, i mean, a kilo is much more than the fatal amount that can cause death that's in this vial. so, i don't think i could even put a number on the number of deaths that this bag could cause. so, the suppliers said that they could post it to my home address. this is so unbelievably dangerous. if there's a hole in the bag in transit, it's not only you, the person whose door it might come through, that is at risk. you're putting the whole postal service, as well, at risk, and, you know,

contaminating how many other people along the way. for them, this is how to make money, even though it's costing lives. the bbc didn't buy any drugs. what's particularly striking is where those chinese suppliers were posting about nitazenes online. i'd found their posts on mainstream social media sites, and two in particular had an abundance. x — formerly known as twitter — and soundcloud. 0n x, we found more than 700 posts. and some sellers were happy to tell me why. there's even posts from a supplier accused of sending more than 15kg of nitazenes to the us.

in september, they were charged, but their posts still remained on x six months later. and they were active, offering to sell me nitazenes when i contacted them. then, soundcloud — a major international music streaming service. i found almost 3,000 adverts. one chinese supplier was keen to talk about how they use the site. do you have many customers from soundcloud? she laughs. on both platforms, suppliers were uploading posts

forfree, like regular users, not creating formal adverts. you discovered the way in which criminals are hiding advertisements for illegal drug content. and finding adverts on this scale — hundreds, thousands — it is horrifying, with potentially a very significant risk to human life. professor vicki nash is an online safety expert at the oxford internet institute, where they research online behaviour, including social media sites. something is reported to them as being illegal, and on their platform, they need to take it down straight away. they shouldn't be hosting this stuff in the first place. they should be putting in place measures to ensure that you cannot advertise illegal drugs on these platforms. why do you think criminals are using x and soundcloud? you know, i would suspect that what they're doing is effectively looking for the weakest link. they're looking for a space where their content won't be quickly or easily identified and removed. if i were running those individual platforms, one of the things i would be looking at is whether we need more investment in trust

and safety resource. hey, claire, how are you doing? hi, hi. do you want to come in? cheers, thanks. i'll take my shoes off. i show claire the nitazene posts we found on x and soundcloud. and these adverts, if you scroll through them, just go on and on, and on. there's loads of them. that's truly frightening, isn't it? so angry. soundcloud, to me, is a platform people are putting music on. what on earth is a whole ream of advertising for lethal drugs doing on there? how many people have died as a result of... ..that being advertised there? we don't know where dylan obtained the fatal drugs that killed him. i don't think dylan would've known

what nitazenes were at all. he was on there all the time, erm, uploading his music. and it's... ..something that felt safe, and something you could trust with your child using. we suspect that the drugs are being advertised here, so that they can be sold from the chinese suppliers to domestic criminal gangs that are based in the uk. sure. rather than to individuals. i explain we recorded one of the sales reps talking about soundcloud. shall i play that to you? she laughs. she's laughing. dylan's got no life, and our lives are destroyed.

i asked x about the ads i'd found. they didn't respond. hundreds of posts were removed, but a month later, many still remained on the platform. i then went to soundcloud. they took some posts down — but a week later, hundreds were still available. i went back again. this time, they removed all those posts. time to call the suppliers back. phone rings. i am recording this conversation. and i want to know why you are willing to supply dangerous drugs when you know they have killed many people. so, i am a bbcjournalist, and i am investigating the sale and supply...

ah. and she's hung up. she later messages. we were unable to verify if her messages were true. the company she worked for didn't respond to us, but removed nitazene ads from its website. phone rings. i'm not going to buy any drugs because i am a bbcjournalist and i am recording this conversation. i want to know why you are willing to sell dangerous drugs when you know they have killed people. you have repeatedly told us these drugs are safe. they are not safe. they have killed many

people here in the uk. you told us you could get them past customs. you know they are illegal here in the uk. you are selling a product that is killing people in the uk. you've told us that you are willing to sell us... this supplier's company later told us all products had been advertised as "intended for scientific research", and didn't know if the drug was illegal in the uk. it denied changing product labels or names on shipments.

the bbc has chosen not to name these companies, so as to not give them any prominence. we contacted all suppliers, who offered to sell us drugs to ask why they were providing illegal and dangerous products. only six responded, claiming they'd never sent the drug to the uk. what are the responsibilities of the social media platforms here? in the past, platforms had the duty to remove this stuff when identified, and that meant that there was a gap whereby they could plead ignorance. with the introduction of the online safety act, platforms will have to assess the risks of illegal content, illegal activity in advance, and they'll have to come up with measures to prevent it from happening. the regulator, ofcom, will be given new powers to enforce this law — but that's unlikely to happen before the end of 202a. i do think that the new legislation will go some way — and hopefully, quite a significant way — to stopping it. but frankly, these criminals, they are so persistent

that they will always find a way or some loophole. it's like whac—a—mole. you take something down, and it pops up somewhere else. it's very hard to keep things completely offline. adding, if online services don't comply, they'll have a "broad range of enforcement powers "at their disposal to ensure "they're held fully accountable for the safety of their users." for dylan's mum, claire, there's only one answer to these posts on x and soundcloud. take them down, obviously. erm, have more stringent things in place to... ..to stop advertisements going on. i don't have the words to express, i don't think, how... ..how disappointing it is. the very thing that dylan used for people to know about his music and love his music also advertising the drug that killed him. soundcloud say they were being "targeted by bad actors"

for the purpose of selling or trading illegal drugs. they say they use staff and software to moderate posts, and promise to take every possible action to tackle the worldwide epidemic of drug trafficking, adding they care deeply about the health and wellbeing of their users. we asked x if a failure to adequately moderate had allowed posts to remain online, while the global trade of these dangerous drugs flourishes. they did not respond. the home office say the online safety act makes it clear "tech companies must do more" to swiftly remove this type of content, and prevent users from being exposed to it. they explained there's been an "intensive operational effort" to track down nitazenes, and "quantities reaching the uk remain low", adding a tightening of the law means anyone involved in the production or supply could face life in prison.

if you have been affected by addiction, details are available from the bbc action line.

live from washington, this is bbc news. a nail—biter in elections in england. labour win the mayoral contest in the west midlands, capping a bleak set of local election results for the conservatives. negotiations continue in cairo to try and work out a deal between hamas and israel as fighting drags on in the gaza strip. a deadly attack on a displacement camp in the democratic republic of congo kills at least nine people.

this as millions in the area are displaced by recent conflict. hello, i'm carl nasman. we start in the uk, where the governing conservative party has suffered a shock defeat in the west midlands, losing the mayoral election to the labour party. the contest between the conservatives' andy street, who was seeking a third term as mayor, and labour's richard parker went right down to the wire — with a recount ordered for one area. the outcome of this particular race had been cast as pivotal for the prime minister, rishi sunak. the bbc�*s political editor chris mason reports. how chris mason reports. are you feeling, andy? irate how chris mason reorts. are ou feelin: , and ? ~ see. how are you feeling, andy? we will see. out how are you feeling, andy? we will see- out of — how are you feeling, andy? we will see. out of his _ how are you feeling, andy? we will see. out of his hands. _ the conservative andy street arrived here at lunchtime awaiting the verdict of voters. it was to be a long wait for mr

street and his labour rival, richard parker.