In a record-breaking drug bust, the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday it seized approximately 1 million fake pills containing fentanyl in Inglewood, California, earlier this month.
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The counterfeit pills were seized on July 5 during a raid of a home tied to a Los Angeles-area drug trafficking organization believed to be linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, the DEA said. The seizure is the largest ever made by the DEA in California, according to the agency. The fake pills have an estimated street value of $15 million to $20 million.
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“This massive seizure disrupted the flow of dangerous amounts of fentanyl into our streets and probably saved many lives,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner said in a statement.
Los Angeles DEA agents, along with the DEA New York Division Tactical Diversion Squad and the Hawthorne Police Department, began investigating the drug ring in May, identifying Southern California narcotic couriers and stash house managers responsible for distributing the narcotics before conducting the raid on the Inglewood residence.
The investigation into the drug trafficking group is ongoing.
The fake pills were mass-produced in Mexico and designed to resemble brand-name prescription medications such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax, and Adderall, according to the DEA.
“The deceptive marketing coupled with the ease of accessibility makes these small and seemingly innocuous pills a significant threat to the health and safety of all our communities,” Bodner said. “A staggering number of teens and young adults are unaware that they are ingesting fentanyl in these fake pills and are being poisoned.”
Fentanyl is a human-made opioid up to 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. It was originally created as a legitimate pharmaceutical drug used to treat severe pain after surgery and in advanced-stage cancer patients.
In 2021, Los Angeles-area DEA agents seized over 3 million pills containing fentanyl, and in 2022, they have so far seized approximately 1.5 million fentanyl-laced pills, a 64% increase over the same period last year, according to the agency.
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The DEA states that 2 milligrams of fentanyl are enough to kill someone who inhales, consumes, or injects it.
There were more than 71,000 fentanyl-related deaths in the United States last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has also recorded a steady increase in deaths linked to fentanyl since 2019.
