Story highlights Tramadol found on terrorism suspects in Africa's Sahel region, UN official says

Security expert: "Synthetic opioid trafficking is a huge new revenue target for ISIS affiliates"

(CNN) The illegal trade and growing abuse of tramadol, a synthetic opioid, are destabilizing parts of West Africa, especially in the Sahel region, where it is fueling terror groups and providing revenue for them to carry out attacks, UN officials and security experts say.

The nonmedical use of tramadol has become such a health crisis in areas like northern Mali and Niger that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, or UNODC, issued a warning this week to the international community.

The problem "is serious, worrying, and needs to be addressed as soon as possible," Pierre Lapaque, UNODC's regional representative in West and Central Africa, said in a statement. "We cannot let the situation get any further out of control."

'Think Al Capone and the liquor gangsters'

Less stigmatized than heroin or other illegal drugs, tramadol as a prescription medication can be accessed and transported more easily, said Adam Winstock, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist in London and director of the Global Drug Survey

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