CENTENNIAL, Colorado — The Drug Enforcement Administration is sounding the alarm about an increase in fentanyl flooding into Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. Agents seized a record 3.4 million pills in 2023 from the four states that make up the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division. The majority of the seizures happened in Colorado at an estimated 2.61 million pills.
This represents a 79 percent increase in the number of pills seized the previous year (1.9 million pills), and a roughly 500 percent increase compared to 2021 (565,00 pills.)
At a news conference Wednesday, Acting Special Agent in Charge David Olesky showed reported an estimated 60,000 pills and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash seized during a single bust last week. He said a bust this size would be seen as a major victory just a few years ago.
“Unfortunately though, this is on a regular basis, week in and week out across the State of Colorado,” Olesky said.
He explained one likely reason for the increase is that producing fentanyl is cheap.
“This is so profitable for the cartels,” Olesky said. “It only costs for them the equivalent of 3 or 4 cents to produce one of these pills.”
It is also easy for people to buy the drugs. Olesky explained a majority of deals take place online with buyers and sellers exchanging messages on social media using emojis to describe the products for sale.
The potency of fentanyl makes it deadly. Just two milligrams, similar to the size of a pencil lead, is enough to be lethal. Laboratory conducted by the DEA showed approximately 7 out of every 10 pills seized in 2023 contained at least 2 milligrams of fentanyl if not more.
Olesky said the spike in overdose deaths reflects this reality.
“The CDC is predicting record numbers of drug poisonings for 2023 with their most recent numbers for the 12 month period ending June 2023 of 112,323 American lives lost,” he said.
Agents at the Rocky Mountain Field Division are working 48 active investigation in Colorado against the two cartels primarily responsible for the surge in fentanyl, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel.
Cutting off supply only solves half the problem. Olesky said the DEA is working to reduce demand for the drugs by increasing public awareness through campaign such as One Pill Can Kill.
“The continuing loss of life shows that we are not reaching everyone we need to,” he said.
Click here to visit the One Pill Can Kill online resource page.
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