The Justice Department said on Monday that 220 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at an estimated $8 million on the black market, had been taken by law enforcement in Massachusetts.
About 900,000 individual doses of powdered fentanyl and 20 pounds of pink, heart-shaped pills—which looked like a popular Valentine's Day candy—allegedly included both methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to court records describing the narcotics that were confiscated.
(Photo: by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) Drug tests, used to detect the presence of fentanyl and xylazine in different kinds of drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, are seen at St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction in New York City on May 25, 2023.
A Case in Massachusetts
Investigators began looking into an overdose fatality in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 5. They contacted someone about buying more drugs using the victim's Snapchat account, which resulted in a three-month surveillance probe.
Three males, Emilio Garcia, 25, Emilio Garcia, 33, and Deiby Felix, 40, were taken into custody by law authorities earlier this month on suspicion of being members of a significant local drug trafficking ring.
The individuals faced many charges pertaining to their purported possession and distribution of illicit substances. In the flats on the first and second levels of the house where the deadly materials were purportedly kept, "multiple children" resided, according to court documents.
During a court-authorized search on November 1, police allegedly discovered drug mixing, distribution gear, and three loaded weapons within the home's basement.
Read also: Virginia High School Students Overdose on Suspected Fentanyl, Forcing Governor To Step In
Heart-Shaped Pills a Huge Risk
"Depraved," according to Attorney General Merrick Garland, is how people describe the usage of heart-shaped narcotics in written declarations; FBI Director Christopher Wray calls it "an enormous risk to children."
Investigators reported finding roughly 60 pounds of fake Adderall pills thought to contain methamphetamine and 280,000 counterfeit Percocet pills thought to contain fentanyl and be worth up to $7 million, in addition to the potentially fatal quantities of powdered fentanyl.
The Deaths Caused by Fentanyl
The Drug Enforcement Agency reports that fentanyl caused over 82,000 deaths in the United States in 2022; this number has risen annually for the previous five years.
At a gathering with overdose victims last month, Garland stated that law enforcement agencies had so far captured more than 9,000 pounds of powder containing the lethal narcotic, as well as more than 55 million tablets of fentanyl this year.
Law enforcement is focusing on the drug cartels in Mexico that smuggle the deadly narcotics into the country as well as the Chinese chemical firms that make the precursors of these poisons, going beyond just removing the illicit drugs off the streets in response to the growing fentanyl crisis.
Federal prosecutors accused 12 people and eight Chinese firms last month of participating in global operations to transport and sell the ingredients needed to make fentanyl and other lethal narcotics into the United States and other countries.
Additionally, in September, the United States succeeded in getting Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of an infamous drug dealer and former head of the Sinaloa cartel Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, extradited from Mexico. In April, López-who entered a not-guilty plea-and other El Chapo sons were accused of planning a cross-border fentanyl trafficking ring into the United States, along with around two dozen other Sinaloa Cartel members and allies.
On November 13, the three men who were accused in Massachusetts are scheduled to appear in federal court for the first time. A request for a response from each of their defense counsel was not immediately answered.
Related article: California Deputy Busted With Over 100 Pounds of Fentanyl Pills-Possibly Linked With Drug Cartel?
