The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), announced Thursday’s record-breaking seizure in Inglewood, California of one million fake pills laced fentanyl.
On July 5, DEA agents executed a federal warrant for search, which led to the seizing of one million fentanyl tablets. The Sinaloa cartel in Mexico was linked to the fentanyl-laced drugs. After conducting an investigation into the drug trafficking organisation since May, agents executed the search warrant.
This is the largest haul of fentanyl pills that DEA agents have seized so far in California. According to reports, the fake fentanyl pills accounted for $15-20 million.
The fentanyl-laced drugs would be brought into the country via the southern border. They would stay there until the “house managers” could distribute them to other drug dealers.
According to the DEA, Mexican cartels are “mass-producing illicit fentanyl” and producing fake pills with fentanyl in unregulated labs. According to CDC data, drug overdoses caused the deaths of more than 107,000 Americans last year.
The Greater Los Angeles area DEA offices seized over three million fentanyl tablets last year. They have seized approximately 1.5 million fentanyl tablets between January and April, which is 64 percent more than the same period in 2021.
Bodner stated that a “staggering amount of teenagers and young adults are unaware they are inhaling fentanyl from these fake pills and are being poisoned.”
Jordan Erickson, 22, of Palmdale, California, died after Lock It Out Barbell members gave him a fentanyl-laced pain pill. He claimed it was to treat an injury. Erickson was given the fentanyl-laced drugs by Lock It Out Barbell, but no arrests have been made.
Riverside County is Los Angeles County’s neighbor. District Attorney Michael Hestrin stated that fentanyl-related death rates have increased by more than 800% in the past five year.
President Joe Biden’s lax immigration policies are responsible for the increased flow of fentanyl into the country. Four times more fentanyl flows across the southern border under President Joe Biden than under former President Donald Trump.
Fiscal Year 2019 saw the seizure of approximately 2,800 pounds worth of fentanyl at the border. That figure was capped at 4,800 pounds of Fentanyl in the following year. Fentanyl seizures rose to around 11,200 pounds by Fiscal Year 2021 (the majority of Biden’s first year as an officeholder).
Drug dealers are also selling fake fentanyl pills and vape pen cartridges.
Reps. Darrell Issa and Ken Calvert, both Republicans from California, recently created a congressional caucus to address the fentanyl crisis.
