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Alpha-PVP, flakka, gravel—whatever you call it, the drug has generated a whirlwind of media attention and public awareness campaigns in recent months thanks in part to the allegedly volatile effects it has on users, who can get high for hours on just a tenth of gram, which costs between $2 to $5 on the street. (That's still less than the dollar or so a healthy dose of K2—a.k.a. spice—will cost you in Brooklyn.)But whereas K2 use has largely been covered as a problem plaguing America's homeless, flakka's proliferation (and concern about it) has been a bit more mainstream. MTV went so far as to do a True Life episode on flakka addicts.In Florida, which remains the nexus of the flakka craze, users have impaled themselves on the security gates of a police station, darted into traffic wearing only their birthday suits, and made sweet love to trees. On a more serious note, officials in Florida's Broward County claim alpha-PVP contributed to the deaths of at least 16 people between September of last year and this April. Similar stories have been reported in Illinois, Houston, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, where Hillman wanted to reign supreme.Previously: The DEA Is Cracking Down on Flakka Smugglers and Dealers in Florida
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The Miami DEA office first came across a substance that tested positive for alpha-PVP in 2012 when agents were collecting random samples of K2 and bath salts sold at retail outlets around Florida. "Back then, it cost $80 for a half gram," Wright said. "Now you can get a tenth of a gram for $5."Hillman was already deep in the gravel game when he caught the attention of a DEA-led task force that had begun a criminal probe in 2012 against his chief supplier, a North Carolina man named Randall Scott Braddock. When Hillman was arrested on March 16, 2014, investigators found 100 grams of alpha-PVP wrapped in two silver baggies in his car, as well as ammunition for pistols of various calibers, according to his plea agreement.On Motherboard: What I've Learned as an Internet Drug Dealer
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