Authorities in Latvia and Lithuania reported seizing carfentanil as an illicit drug in the early 2000s . Around 2016 , the US and Canada started reporting a dramatic increase in shipment of carfentanil and other strong opioid drugs to customers in North America from Chinese chemical supply firms . In June 2016 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized one kilogram of carfentanil shipped from China in a box labeled " printer accessories " . According to the Canada Border Services Agency , the shipment contained 50 million lethal doses of the drug , more than enough to wipe out the entire population of the country , in containers labeled as toner cartridges for Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers . Allan Lai , an officer-in-charge at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Calgary who helped oversee the criminal investigation said , " With respect to carfentanil , we do n't know why a substance of that potency is coming into our country . " In 2012 , a team of researchers at the British chemical and biological defence laboratories at Porton Down found carfentanil and remifentanil in clothing from two British survivors of the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis and in the urine from a third survivor . The team concluded that the Russian military used an aerosol mist of carfentanil and remifentanil to subdue Chechen hostage takers
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Carfentanil