A facile synthesis of 9-substituted 9-deazapurines as potential inhibitors of purine nucleoside phosphorylase has been achieved by the direct Friedel–Crafts aroylation or arylmethylation of 9-deazapurines using trifluoromethanesulfonic acid as catalyst. The aroylated 9-deazapurines could be transformed into the corresponding 9-arylmethyl derivatives by the Wolff–Kishner reaction. A novel synthesis of 9-deazahypoxanthine was also developed by treatment of 4-hydroxy-5-phenylazo-6-methylpyrimidin-2-thione with triethyl orthoformate in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) to yield 8-oxo-7H-2-phenylpyrimido[5,4-c]pyridazin-6-thione followed by Raney nickel reduction.