Nearly 1,200 pounds of fentanyl was seized from a warehouse in northern Mexico — a “historic” haul of the deadly synthetic opioid, authorities said Thursday.
The Mexican army and national guard seized some 1,196 pounds of fentanyl — which is up to 100 times stronger than morphine — from a warehouse on Saturday in Culiacán, where the Sinaloa drug cartel operates, authorities said.
“This is the largest seizure in history of this lethal drug,” said Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia, estimating the fentanyl had a street value of roughly $230 million.
Ten suspects were arrested in the “historic” seizure, Mexican authorities said in a statement Thursday. Investigators also seized more than 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, 68 pounds of cocaine, as well as opium gum and heroin.
The huge bust comes less than a month after Colorado State Patrol officers seized 114 pounds of pure fentanyl from a car headed to Denver via Interstate 70. The agency told Fox News it was believed to be the largest seizure of pure fentanyl powder made on a highway.
As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Overdose deaths involving opioids like fentanyl skyrocketed 38 percent in the US between 2020 and 2021, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.
Some drug users, meanwhile, are unaware that illicit substances contain fentanyl, which is primarily manufactured in secret labs in Mexico and smuggled into the US, according to the DEA.
“Fentanyl is being mixed in with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids,” the agency said in fentanyl fact sheet. “Because there is no official oversight or quality control, these counterfeit pills often contain lethal doses of fentanyl, with none of the promised drug.”
With Post wires
