More than 200,000 fentanyl pills taken off Utah streets in two actions

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(The Center Square) – More than 200,000 fentanyl pills have been taken off the streets in Utah in two law enforcement actions. 

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Two milligrams is considered a lethal dose. 

One pill is considered to contain two milligrams. The volume of pills seized in these actions was enough to kill 200,000 people. 

The announcement was made ahead National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day, Friday, August 21.

Two Mexican nationals were indicted for their role in unrelated fentanyl trafficking cases. One was in the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Both were indicted by a federal grand jury after they were arrested and charged in two separate and unrelated cases that led to the seizure of approximately 204,000 fentanyl pills in one week, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah. They are each charged with possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute. 

Jesus Alexis Cecena Cota, 22, illegally living in West Jordan, and Ricardo Verduzco Bernal, 54, of West Valley City, were charged in two separate complaints on August 13, announced on Thursday. Their indictments were the outworking of investigations led by members of the FBI’s Wasatch Metro Drug Task Force (WMDTF).

In Cota’s case, FBI WMDTF agents investigated Cota and co-conspirators, “both known and unknown, associated with a drug trafficking organization believed to be distributing large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics” in Utah, according to court documents. After executing a search warrant, during a vehicle search, they found and seized approximately 1.44 grams of field-tested positive methamphetamine. At the storge unit, they found and seized approximately 9,351.45 grams worth of 93,000 pills that field-tested positive for fentanyl. At Cota’s residence, they found and seized 21.7 grams of field-tested positive fentanyl, U.S. currency, and a suspected drug ledger, according to prosecutors.

In a separate case, FBI WMDTF agents investigated Bernal and co-conspirators, “both known and unknown, associated with a drug trafficking organization believed to be distributing large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics” in Utah. They conducted an undercover controlled purchase of fentanyl from Bernal, which led to obtaining and executing a search warrant on a hotel room in Salt Lake County. They found and seized approximately 11,160.65 grams worth of 111,000 pills that field-tested positive for fentanyl, according to prosecutors. 

Their trials are scheduled for next week in Salt Lake City.

The announcement was made ahead of the DEA joining Facing Fentanyl on Friday to unite families, communities, and organizations nationwide to recognize National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day. 

This is the fifth year of the national observance, which pays tribute to the lives lost to fentanyl poisoning. It also serves as a nationwide “call to action to increase awareness to the highly addictive and dangerous drugs containing fentanyl that continue to drive the opioid epidemic and take lives,” the DEA says.

The DEA’s Faces of Fentanyl memorial exhibit, located in Arlington, Virginia, displays more than 7,000 photos of Americans who have died from the opioid crisis. It also launched a new, interactive online exhibit: dea.gov/facesoffentanyl. 

Multiple congressional hearings have been held where parents testified about how their children took pills they thought were Xanex or Percocet but were laced with fentanyl and died, The Center Square reported. 

As the border crisis worsened under the Biden administration, the DEA issued public alerts about fentanyl laces with other drugs like Xylazine. 

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation into law to increase penalties for fentanyl related crimes, including charging distributers with murder. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed similar legislation into law; 18 attorneys general called on the former president to classify fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Members of Congress introduced bills to address the fentanyl crisis, including increasing penalties. The FDA fast tracked NARCAN, which has been found to reverse opioid overdoses, for over the counter access.

Through Abbott’s border security initiative, Operation Lone Star, law enforcement seized 879 million lethal doses of fentanyl, The Center Square reported. 

Under the Trump administration, law enforcement officers are continuing to seize large quantities of fentanyl. In six months this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 100 million lethal doses of fentanyl. 

The Trump administration also designated Mexican cartels and other transnational criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in order to bring greater enforcement actions against them. Authorities found that fentanyl precursors were being shipped from China to Mexico, where cartels made them into pills to traffic into the U.S. 

They were also mixing fentanyl powder with cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, creating a more lethal dose, authorities found. 

While fentanyl-related deaths have declined under the Trump administration, fentanyl remains the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18-45 years old.